By Husam Dughman
Three months have now passed since Israel and the US launched military attacks against the Ayatollahs of Iran. The original purpose was to prevent the Ayatollah regime from developing nuclear capabilities. That made sense. The Ayatollahs had been trying for so long to develop nuclear weapons. Even before the Twelve-Day War of 2025, they had managed to enrich uranium by up to 60%, only 30% short of what would be needed to develop nuclear weapons, and considerably way beyond the 3.5% required for nuclear energy to be used for peaceful purposes. Combined with their genocidal intentions towards “infidels”, particularly Israel, and their deeply felt otherworldly aspirations, the Ayatollahs had posed an unprecedented danger to world peace and security.
The military performance of both Israel and the US was nothing short of stellar. Yet, for reasons unknown to those not privy to the internal workings of the US administration and its intelligence services, a two-week ceasefire was announced on the 7th of April 2026. This has now been extended a number of times, notwithstanding the odd skirmishes here and there between the US and Iran. For the past eight weeks since the initiation of that ceasefire, things have become rather cloudy. The Ayatollah regime started to exploit the Strait of Hormuz to force its agenda on the world, including the US. It has threatened the Arabic-speaking Gulf states with attacks and has indeed launched some attacks on some of them. It is now threatening to utilize the Bab al-Mandab Strait to get what it wants.
Although the Ayatollah regime had initially made wild demands to which the US would never have agreed- such as the closing down of American bases around the Gulf, US withdrawal from the region, and the payment of reparations for all the damage inflicted on Iran since the 28th of February 2026- it has since toned down and/ or marginalized some of those demands in favour of insisting on the lifting of sanctions imposed on it and the unfreezing of billions of dollars in assets as a precondition for the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz. As for the question of nuclear weapons, well, the Ayatollahs have expressed their desire to postpone talks on those for now and to enter into negotiations with the US on that matter at a later, unspecified date. Trump initially humoured the Ayatollah regime but then became so increasingly unhappy with its stalling and stonewalling that he has now described negotiations with it as “very boring.” But how did the rest of the world react to this whole shebang?
For a start, Israel has been very unhappy with the discontinuation of the war against the Ayatollah regime. Netanyahu does not seem to be at all happy with giving the mullahs any breathing space. He has judged, rightly, that the Ayatollah regime has never been- and indeed will never be- genuinely interested in making peace with its adversaries, ending hostilities, or renouncing its nuclear ambitions. The Europeans, on the other hand, have been somewhat non-committal, yet slightly leaning towards a critical stance in respect of America’s and Israel’s military actions. This has led to Trump referring to them as weak and unreliable allies, especially when they have so far failed to do anything of any substance to help with the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz which is, in fact, much more important for their economies than for that of the US. It appears that the majority of members of the public in many European countries as well as the majority of those in the US itself are opposed to the current Iran war.
The general attitude of those critics seems to be that America’s and Israel’s military victory has not been translated into a political or strategic victory; that the war has taken too long; that the Ayatollah regime has not been overthrown nor does it look like it will be anytime soon, the American naval blockade on it notwithstanding; that a significant portion of Iran's missile delivery system may still be in operation; that its enriched uranium is still intact in safe places underground within Iran; and that Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz has caused the world huge increases in the cost of living in terms of access to oil, gas, fertilizers, and other products deemed essential for the smooth running of the world economy, with the IEA (International Energy Agency) reportedly describing the current war against Iran as the biggest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Although the US is not dependent for its oil on the Persian Gulf, America’s oil prices are nevertheless influenced by those of the global market.
As for the Arabic-speaking Gulf states, those have been quite nervous and worried about the course of the war in question. They have suffered much as a result of Iran’s misdeeds, not only in terms of their safety and security, but also with regard to their objective of projecting the image of a stable and prosperous Gulf region with which foreign investors can engage. Needless to say, the Islamists and the leftists around the world have been jubilant and even ecstatic about what may come across to some as America’s quagmire. They, along with other cynics, assert that the US, having realized its military might was unable to achieve political victory on the ground, is now doing its utmost to try and come up with some face-saving deal in order to conclude the war without coming across as a humiliated and defeated country.
At this juncture, Occam’s razor comes to the rescue. Just like one considers the critics of this war in question to be wide of the mark in describing Israel’s and America’s war on Iran as a war of choice rather than as a pre-emptive war, in view of the fact that those critics fail to comprehend that the mortal danger which the Ayatollah regime had posed to other countries- especially to Israel- was contextually (as opposed to temporally) imminent and that, at its Occam-razor level, a pre-emptive war is one where one of the two antagonistic sides prevents a mortal danger posed to it by the other side from materializing by taking action first, it is likewise the case, then, that the rationale for the 2026 Iran war is still as strong as ever, namely preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and wreaking havoc on the world, including the annihilation of the only Jewish state on this planet. No price, no hardship, and no inconvenience whatsoever is too high or too unbearable for the achievement of that most important of objectives.
If the multitude of people with wobbly knees in the West whine about how long this war has been going on, grumble about the increased cost of living, and moan about the resulting disruption to how the world operates, those concerns will easily vanish once they truly appreciate that none of those- not even all of them put together- is remotely comparable to the deadly danger to their safety, security, welfare, and even sheer survival posed by a nuclear-armed Iran. The sooner people understand that, the better it will be for the whole world and its future.
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About the author
Husam Dughman is a Libyan Canadian political scientist, religious thinker, linguist, and an expert on immigrants and refugees. He received his formal education in Libya and the UK. Mr. Dughman later worked as a university professor of political science in Libya. Due to confrontations with the Qaddafi regime, he resigned from his university position and subsequently worked in legal translation. Mr. Dughman has worked with new immigrant and refugee services in both Canada and the US since 2006.
Husam Dughman has published a book entitled Tête-à-tête with Muhammad. He has also written numerous articles on politics and religion. He has now completed the full manuscript of a book which he hopes to have published in the near future. The new book is an in-depth examination of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and the non-religious school of thought.
