Every time that President Trump turns away for just a moment from Iran, the regime takes one more aggressive step, whether trying to control the Strait of Hormuz; shooting missiles at American bases in the Middle East (from their supposedly depleted supplies) and killing our soldiers; or most recently, as Israel and the U.S. discovered, relocating centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain:

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Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into tunnels deep inside a mountain last fall, Israeli and U.S. officials say, a development that would heighten concerns that Tehran could reconstitute its nuclear program.

Israel passed along the intelligence findings to the U.S., saying the centrifuges were transferred to the Pickaxe Mountain site last fall after the 12-day war in June when American and Israeli strikes pummeled Iran’s three main nuclear sites.

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The U.S. is in the process of deciding how to tackle this problem.

We also can’t assume that the depletion of the missiles in Iran has been devastating either, since neither Jordan nor the U.S. were fully able to stop them. (Trump alluded to the possibility that someone else had failed to stop the missiles.) Iran has learned to how its remaining missiles operate:

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‘The Iranians have advanced missile technology,’ said Jordanian Lt. Gen. Qasid Mahmoud, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff for his country’s armed forces before he retired. ‘They’re developing techniques and capacities to extend their reach, combining with drones to overwhelm radar defenses.’

‘The Iranians use simple missiles to distract the radar,’ Mahmoud, who has studied Iran’s military capabilities for years, told CBS News. ‘They then fire better quality missiles, which change their final target in the last 30 or 40 kilometers.’

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Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, Trump attacked Iran on Tuesday night as a response to its attacks on ships in the Strait.

Iran’s ability to change its tactics continues to drag out this war, one which Trump and the American people would like to bring to a swift end. Although Trump has been successful in many of his strategies, he has also been unable to meet some of his initial goals for attacking Iran: destroying their missile systems; destabilizing the proxies in the region; and ensuring that Iran doesn’t obtain a nuclear weapon.

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An article from the Atlantic Council (a think tank normally hostile to Trump), however, has recommended a comprehensive approach for containing Iran that might have some teeth and allow Trump to work with Democrats. First, it acknowledges that as long as the Islamic Republic of Iran exists, it will conduct actions detrimental to U.S. interests and to our regional partners; that we will have a second war with Iran over the long-term, since they will likely choose to take revenge for the suffering they endured; and that the Iranian people, with adequate support from the region and sufficient arms, will finally take back their country.

With these facts in mind, it proposes slowing negotiations while plans for the future are put in place, hardening U.S. bases in the countries of our Middle East partners, finally getting the Europeans involved, traversing the Strait of Hormuz to send the message that we are prepared to protect freedom of passage, strengthening our relationships with the Middle East countries, and locating an aircraft carrier strike group consistently near the Gulf, supported by the militaries of the U.K. and France. (See the original article for more details.)

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The demands of this approach will be wide-ranging and consequential. If we want to limit the power of the Iranian Republic to attack us at will, however, we will need to take risks and ensure that Iran knows that it will no longer be able to threaten the Middle East and us without retribution.

This game of whack-a-mole must come to an end.

Image created using AI.