The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie.
Mark Twain
No one in the universe, not even Allah, trusts the Iranians. During nuclear disarmament discussions with the Soviet Union in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan repeatedly used the Russian proverb, “Trust but verify.” This aphorism may be an optimistic position with Iran, but we have to try. Eight prior presidents unsuccessfully tried to sanction and bribe the terrorist regime, which has been at war with the United States for 47 years, while sponsoring terrorism all over the world.
In 1979, Democrat President Jimmy Carter allowed the first Ayatollah to return from exile to lead the Islamic revolution, which deposed the Shah of Iran and declared war on the United States. Iranians then invaded our embassy and imprisoned Americans for 444 days. While there may be no congressional declaration of war with Iran, we have nonetheless been at war with them for the last half-century.
Repeatedly, presidents have maintained that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, but little changed until President Trump. Actions speak louder than words, and Trump will not let the terrorist regime have a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles to carry their apocalyptic jihad to the world. It’s that simple. To say that Trump’s policy has not been clearly articulated is an utter lie repeated by Democrats, their media apparatchiks and many RINOS.
Titular “experts” have opined that Trump should stop seeking a negotiated settlement and immediately resume the bombing of Iran. Of course, bombing will resume if the Iranian regime refuses to make a deal or fails to keep the agreement. However, the systematic destruction of power plants, bridges and additional infrastructure in Iran will be devastating and will likely precipitate a humanitarian crisis of starvation, thirst and disease. Perhaps Iran’s leadership and the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) deserve this, but I am sure there are innocent people in Iran who don’t. Consequently, Trump must do all he can to accomplish the primary mission, yet limit the suffering. The Iranian leadership has no comparable guardrails of decency or morality and cares little for its people. They recently shot and killed 35,000 protesters.
Sanctions of Iran, political isolation and the current naval blockade of Iranian shipping are analogous to a siege. The Biblical siege of Jerusalem in the 6th century BC by King Nebuchadnezzar’s army is a historical example. The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem lasted two and a half years with catastrophic results. An estimated one million perished from famine, disease and finally the sword when the Babylonians breached the walls. The Jews who weren’t massacred were enslaved for 70 years.
President Trump is trying to spare Iranians devastating privation, but he is unwilling to allow the apocalyptic mullahs to keep their “uranium dust,” reportedly sufficient for 11 nuclear weapons, and ballistic missiles able to deliver death to Israel, Middle Eastern neighbors, Europe or America.
I understand that Shia mullahs are fanatics, but you would think that Democrats would comprehend reality. However, Democrats are so blinded by their hatred of Trump and their pursuit of power that they would sacrifice everything on the altar of progressive socialist lunacy. As a result, it would be hard for me to decide who is more insane: Iranian mullahs or the Democratic leadership.
I’ve explained this before, but the ancestors of the Babylonians now reside in Iraq and are part of the majority Sunni branch of worldwide Islam. Current-day Iranians are descendants of the ancient Persian empire and are of the minority Shia branch of Islam. The power struggle and hatred between the Sunni and Shia began with the death of Muhammad in the 7th century AD. In the 1980s, Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year bloody war with 500,000 killed. Perhaps the Biblical prophecy of Ishmael’s descendants in Genesis 16:12 and Genesis 25:18 should be reconsidered.
Who do you trust is a question on everyone’s mind these days. In March 2026, the annual Edelman Trust Barometer was released by the multinational marketing firm as it has done for the last 25 years. I wasn’t surprised to read that 70% of the surveyed population are “hesitant or unwilling to trust those who differ from them in values, beliefs or backgrounds.” (You can find the gory details on the internet if you so desire.) Suffice it to say, trust in the institutions that hold a culture or a country together has been so tarnished that skepticism would be a kind way of expressing America’s current zeitgeist (Webster: the general intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era). We don’t trust our institutions, the media, our leaders, our neighbors or each other.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams selected the Latin phrase “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one) as the unofficial motto of the new country. The phrase was placed on the Great Seal of the United States and on national coinage. Perhaps they wanted to capture the zeitgeist (spirit) of the nascent land of immigrants and the disparate thirteen states of the new Federalist system.
Then, in 1956, amidst the Cold War against godless communism, the Senate formalized the official motto for the United States as “In God We Trust.” The motto now appears on our currency, on various institutions and documents.
As I thought about trust last week, I wondered, do we still believe in our motto? G. K. Chesterton once observed, “When a man stops believing in God, he does not believe in nothing; he believes in anything.” Without a foundational belief or reference point, everything becomes relative. Men can become women, equality under law becomes the mandated equity of outcomes and “my truth” replaces reality.
I admit I am skeptical about a lot of things, especially what the media reports or politicians say. But that does not mean I don’t follow my own axiom: “Read widely, think carefully and sift everything through common sense, your own observations and experience as well as your conscience. This will bring you closer to the truth.”
Food for thought…
