Just hanging around
By Jim Fletcher
Early in the 1973 college football season, Oklahoma traveled to Los Angeles to play Southern Cal in the Coliseum. A storied venue against an opponent loaded not just with All-Americans, but future NFL hall-of-famers! The Okies were going out west to see how they’d do against the likes of Lynn Swann, Richard Wood, and Sam “Bam” Cunningham. Nobody gave OU a chance. Sooner Coach Barry Switzer said it was like semis going up against his team’s Mack trucks.
Oklahoma didn’t pay attention to the pre-game publicity. They hung around. Their own defense was elite, and the Sooner wishbone gave USC some fits. OU coaches would not allow quarterback Steve Davis to throw even one pass in the second half. The strategy was to control the game. If not for a near-miss on a field goal, OU would have won. The teams tied, 7-7.
Sometimes sure victories don’t always materialize.
In all the ferocity of modern wars against the Arabs, the good guys can always count on a few things. The biggest one perhaps is that the jihadists in the Middle East have perfected the art of hanging around. They know they can’t win outright, and never do. But they can throw sand in the gears of the elite armies. They can always leverage the devilish international media to do their bidding. We’ve seen this recently as the Media love to denigrate Israel, who suffered mass rape, murder, and kidnapping on October 7. While painting Hamas as victims!
Incredibly, amid all the American and Israeli firepower, and all the destruction those great armies have inflicted on Iran, the mullahs are still in charge. This is like Rocky Marciano slugging and punching a blood-spurting chump for a handsome purse.
Perhaps the most insane truth though is that Iran is still able to control the Strait of Hormuz. I find this shocking. Laying mines and forbidding certain ships from using the Strait…what’s going on here? Why didn’t Trump order the Marines to take Kharg Island, about 25 miles off the coast of Iran, in the Persian Gulf. About 90 percent of Iran’s oil is shipped from this location.
As Trump goes back and forth on public statements—claiming the war is wrapping up, wait, no it isn’t—we understand this is a common tactic he uses to keep his enemies off balance. It works well, often. But the question remains: will American leadership stay the course, or will they let the devils in Tehran wriggle off the hook and stay in power? Trump keeps talking about more reasonable leadership that he’s now talking to (after killing the previous leadership), but if all this ends with the mullahs still in charge, then the cycle will continue.
Iran is also actively courting its proxies in the region, which seem, like vampires, unable to die. Hezbollah, crippled after Pagergate, never stops rearming. According to one report, the Lebanese front is still very active.
“Majles Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf issued a statement praising Hezbollah for carrying out ‘87 operations in one night’ against Israeli targets. Qalibaf wrote that before the outbreak of the war, he said in an interview that Hezbollah was more vital than ever, and that today, the rapid operations and the ongoing high-quality attacks, which caused heavy damage to the equipment and forces of the ‘Zionist enemy,’ prove the truth of the promises of the ‘Martyred Leader’ (Ali Khamenei). He added that Hezbollah is the pride of Islam and that many more surprises are about to come.”
Remember the other week when Lebanon evicted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Reza Shibani? Well, they kind of didn’t. Iran is defying the order, as Shibani remains in the embassy, in a stand-off. He “refuses to leave,” because if he does, he’ll be escorted to the border. So Iran continues its effective game of simply defying its enemies. Again, the strategy of Hanging Around works for them. They know that the Trump Era will come to an end and perhaps they’ll get another feckless American president, a la Obama.
Likewise, Iran mucks around in Iraqi affairs.
“Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke by phone with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and discussed regional and international developments against the backdrop of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel. Pezeshkian stressed Iran’s determination to continue ‘legitimate and determined defense against any aggression.’”
Too, the Houthis have pledged their undying love and devotion for Iran, and work day and night to lob missiles and drones at southern Israel. The latter continues to fight on multiple fronts.
One cannot help but wonder where all this will end up.
The bad guys will continue to hope and work for a strategy in which the Mack trucks play the big, elite semis to a standoff.
Let’s pray for a decisive victory over these devils. Press on, Mr. President!