Victory?
Of course not to the legions in the media, the Trump and Bibi haters worldwide.
Not to the “Gleeful Defeatists”. Whose personal hatreds of two men trump their support for the enlightenment values of the west. Who openly cheer for the victory of the worst tyrannical theocracy this century.
Michael Doran and Gadi Taub have been fair-minded yet hard-headed analysts from a right-of-centre perspective. If you want perspective from left-of-centre, you just need to go to any of the mainstream media. CNN will give it you. So will the BBC. And so will Australia’s ABC. And Democrats too, of course. Australia’s Labor government. All of Europe….
Mike and Gadi are fair: they read out a list of ways the pro-Iran-regime crowd claim IRGC has won. As well as the counter to that. Which amounts to a reckoning that we, the west, are much better off than we were on October 8th 2023. This will no doubt be mocked as being “major cope”. You watch.
There’s discussion of the moral dilemmas of asymmetric war. Where the enemy is perfectly willing to put its citizens in harm’s way, to kill them if they dare resist. Gadi mentions an Israeli analyst who says that if the enemy puts civilians in front of military targets, you must stop the war. Which of course will mean that the west can never win another war against terrorists. It’s the ultimate “terrorist veto”.
It’s what happened with the hostages in Gaza. One’s own military becomes hostage to the hostages. It’s a dilemma. Which some people, like Yishai Fleisher, argue against. And I support. Such are the exigencies of existential battles. Not “if they go low, we go high”. Uncomfortable, sure.
Me? On the issue of “ceasefire” I’m not at all keen, as I wrote. So I remain firmly of the opinion of “hmmm…”. Which is, at best, “we”ll see”. What do I know? Nothing. “I know nothing…”.
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ADDED: There are reports — unconfirmed— that China pressured Iran into agreeing to this ceasefire. This could make sense. End of the day what they want, what we all want, tbf, is a peaceful Middle East. Or at least one without an Islamist, terrorist, genocidal-suicidal, millenarian, regional-global bully.*
*ADDED (2): Grok answer to my query:
Yes, multiple credible reports confirm that China exerted pressure on Iran to accept a recent two-week ceasefire with the United States (and involving Israel), which was announced on April 8, 2026. The truce includes a pause in hostilities and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage. [More]
