Foreign Policy > Iran War

The Foreign Subversion of Partisan Politics

 Sapping the will of Americans to remain dominant in world affairs will inevitably lead to a torpor at home, breeding depression and mass failure. 

William R. Hawkins | June 1, 2026

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf stated on May 29, “We gain concessions not through dialogue, but with missiles…. The winner of any agreement is whoever is better prepared for war the day after it.” This is not a new insight but a cold historical truth about the conduct of diplomacy between adversaries. As Prussia’s Frederick the Great put it some three centuries ago, “Diplomacy without arms is like a concert without instruments.” On the surface, this implies that outcomes reflect the balance of power. But the key element in Ghalibaf’s concept of “better prepared” is the willingness to go to war, as Iran is not better prepared in terms of military capability after having been pounded by U.S. and Israeli airpower. Yet, Tehran presents an iron will to fight on, counting on domestic politics to derail America’s vastly superior war effort. There are alarming signs that the Iranian Shiite theocrats may be correct.

Consider the media’s attempt to highlight every Iranian action as a victory, making the U.S. effort appear to be a lost cause. Headlines matter in a society with short attention spans and a weakness for sensationalism. On May 20, The Mirror proclaimed, “Report finds that Iran downed 42 U.S. fighter jets as war costs top $29 billion.” When one reads “fighter jets,” what comes to mind are the highly capable fighter-bombers of the U.S. Air Force and Navy. But when one reads the actual Congressional Research Service report cited, over half of these losses (25) are merely drones. Only five of the aircraft lost were manned fighter-bombers actually shot down, and three of these were ‘friendly fire” from Kuwaiti air defenses that mistook our aircraft for Iranian weapons. Iran “downed” only two USAF aircraft, an F-15 on April 5 and an A-10 on April 6 with all aircrew rescued. Given that we conducted at that point over 15,000 air attacks on Iranian targets, that is an amazing testimony as to the capability of........

© American Thinker