In broad-brush strokes, the war with Iran started in 1979, when a radical group in Tehran took 66 Americans hostage. The day Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, those hostages were released. But Iran never stopped waging war on America and killing Americans.

Fast-forward to last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer, in which American forces dropped bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities in a bid to stop its weapons program. Apparently unconvinced of that operation’s long-term success, President Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury in February to decapitate the Iranian regime.

Nearly four months later, President Trump announced a memorandum of understanding intended as a step toward peace. Nearly everyone across the political spectrum said, You can’t trust the Iranians, complaining about the MOU one way or another.

As Mark Alexander asked in June, “Does anyone with an IQ higher than their age believe that a deal to end hostilities with a bunch of mullahs and military tyrants running a rogue Islamist state was going to be squeaky clean?”

As it turns out, critics were right — likely just as Trump knew they were. He is, after all, the author of The Art of the Deal. In other words, proving that the Iranians were untrustworthy was part of his plan.

“I don’t want to deal with them anymore,” President Trump said recently. “They’re scum. They’re sick people. … As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. It’s just a waste of time dealing with them.”

On July 7, hostilities resumed when Tehran launched strikes against ships in the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. forces in the region. On July 10, the Trump administration officially advised Congress that the 60-day War Powers clock had restarted.

Three American service members were killed in strikes over the weekend, two of them at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, the third in northern Iraq. Seventeen Americans have been killed and more than 400 wounded since operations began.

In response, Trump issued a stern warning: “Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over! This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military. ”

In addition to retaliatory strikes, Trump also rescinded the waiver that had permitted Iranian oil sales and restored the embargo. He instituted a 20% toll and then removed it. Anything to keep the Iranians guessing.

So is the MOU dead? Not entirely. Then what’s the strategy?

“Rather than return to major combat operations, Trump has opted for a campaign of calibrated escalation designed to force [IRGC General Ahmad] Vahidi to accept the American definition of the MOU,” explains the Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran. “His strikes have focused on coastal military infrastructure around Bandar Abbas and associated logistics links — such as bridges near Bandar Khamir — seeking to impose enough pain to make the status quo untenable without igniting a wider regional war.”

He adds, “The strategy reflects the same logic that originally informed the MOU. Trump seeks to combine military pressure with economic pressure. Superior American firepower sustains an embargo that Iran cannot indefinitely survive. Access to markets — and eventually to money — becomes the reward for compliance.”

The Trump administration is still hoping for negotiations, not least because the midterm elections are right around the corner and the national average for gas just surpassed $4 a gallon again.

“We’ve tried multiple times [to negotiate] with Iran, and we’ll continue to try,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “If that door opens, we’ll be happy to see it open.”

As for the election, one GOP strategist warned, “I know of zero Republican strategists or campaigns that believe continued hostilities are good for our chances in the midterms.”

In conclusion, I could hardly do better than turning to GEN B.B. Bell (USA Ret.), who recently offered this strategy on our pages:

• Issue Iran an ultimatum demanding its full and unconditional compliance with our original military objectives regarding its nuclear weapons programs. Give it X days to fully demonstrate compliance.

• At the end of the X-day period, require Iran to immediately and safely escort and assist American and international inspectors to all — all — its nuclear and missile manufacturing sites.

• Require Iran to assist the United States in the location of and ultimate on-site destruction of all enriched uranium materials.

• Require Iran to execute on-site destruction of theater and intercontinental missile production capabilities and facilitate U.S. inspection of those destroyed facilities.

• Require Iran to immediately cease all interference with full international freedom of the seas in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.

• Demand Iran’s public declaration of cessation of all monetary and physical support to its proxy anti-Israel and anti-U.S. forces.

• Inform Iran that failure to comply with any of these provisions will result in the immediate reinitiation of Epic Fury (Phase II), during which our military goals will be fully and quickly achieved. In any renewal of Epic Fury, add an additional military objective stating, “Destroy Iran’s oil distribution capabilities on Kharg Island.”

• Demand that NATO fully join an international NATO-led coalition, supported by our Middle Eastern / Southwest Asian partners and allies, with responsibility to “police” the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz until such time as all Iranian verifications have been achieved. Fully militarily destroy any renewed efforts by Iran to in any way “close the Strait of Hormuz.”

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