Mr. President, Do Not Give Iran What It Wants Most: Time
Are you familiar with the al-Hudaybiyah strategy of war? It is the signing of a peace treaty with your enemy to deceive your enemy so you can use the time to restructure and rebuild, and then attack when they least expect it.
It is based on the treaty signed by Muhammad the creator of this religion of Islam in 628, which he used against the Meccans, called the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah. In 628, Muhammad traveled toward Mecca with 1,400 of his followers and made camp nearby at al-Hudaybiyah. He and his men had attacked Meccan caravans and pirated their goods. ( Just like the Iranians are doing in the Straits of Hormuz) Muhammad knew he could not win that fight at that time, ( Just like the IRGC and the Mullahs in Iran know they cannot beat America and Israel) so he agreed to sign a 10-year peace treaty with them.
The treaty became known as the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah. The Meccans believed they had peace. Muhammad used that treaty to rejuvenate and rebuild his army. He then attacked Mecca two years later when the Meccans least expected it. Mecca fell within 24 hours.
That strategy has been used for centuries by Muslims that see peace agreements not as permanent peace, but as tactical pauses. A perfect recent example is Yasser Arafat signing the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993.
When Arafat signed the Oslo Accords, journalists in the Arabic world asked him in disbelief, “How could you sign a peace deal with the devil Israel?” Arafat would tell them in Arabic, “Remember al-Hudaybiyah,” while speaking about peace in English.
Everyone who understood that political language knew what Arafat was doing while the Israelis were singing Shalom Achshav, “Peace Now,” in Tel Aviv, rejoicing that finally there was peace with the Palestinians.
Arafat used the Oslo Accords to return to the Palestinian territory, establish the Palestinian Authority, get Israel to train and arm his police, and within eight years, the Palestinians launched the Second Intifada. Suicide bombers exploded in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and Jewish blood spilled on the streets. That same disaster will be fall America if we let them get away with it now.
And here we are today.
Mr. President, you can never trust the radical Iranian mullahs who consider us the Great Satan. The mullahs do not want peace with us. They want time, just like Muhammad at al-Hudaybiyah and just like Arafat after Oslo.
They will use any agreement to rebuild, rearm, restructure, and strike when they believe the time is right.
Mr. President, they fear you — and that is a good thing.
They fear your strength. They fear your unpredictability. They fear your iron will. They know you believe what you say, and they know you act on what you believe. That is why they are careful with you.
But that is also why they will try to wait you out.
The Iranian regime has been playing this game for 47 years. You cannot be President forever. You have only a limited time left in office. The mullahs understand that better than anyone. They know they do not have to defeat you directly if they can delay, deceive, sign an agreement, buy time, survive your term, and then change the rules again after you are gone.
That is the trap.
You are a master of the Art of the Deal, but deals only work when the people on the other side have honor, accountability, and consequences. The Iranian mullahs do not think like honorable businesspeople. They do not believe in treaties as binding moral commitments. They believe in whatever preserves their power.
They will say, “Obama made a deal and Trump canceled it.” Then, if you make a deal and the next president cancels it, they will say, “America cannot be trusted.” Either way, who wins?
The Iranians win.
They win because they gain time. They win because they keep their regime alive. They win because they keep their nuclear program close enough to restart. They win because they turn American politics against itself.
That is why, Mr. President, this cannot just be 3D chess.
You need to add one more layer and make it 4D chess.
The fourth dimension is time.
Do not make a deal that only works while Donald Trump is in the White House. Make a deal that still works after you are gone. Make a deal that cannot be reversed, delayed, ignored, or exploited by the mullahs after your presidency ends.
Because if they wait you out and then rebuild, rearm, and attack later, your enemies will say, “This happened because Donald Trump made a bad deal with Iran, and they waited him out.”
That must not be your legacy.
There is another danger that must not be ignored. They may try to take you out, as they have tried before, because that would speed up the process of changing the rules. If they believe your strength is the only thing standing in their way, then they have every reason to remove that obstacle.
Mr. President, the Iranian regime is a cancer, and the only way to deal with cancer is to destroy it, not manage it, not negotiate with it, and certainly not make deals with it that give it time to grow back.
Please finish the job and remove this regime from power before it has the chance to attack us. Because if you do not, it will come back, and next time the blood will not just be on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It will be on ours, and we may not have you, Mr. President, to protect us.
The time for half measures is over.
No trust. No paper promises. No temporary peace that becomes tomorrow’s war. No sanctions relief before total performance. No hidden nuclear program. No sunset clauses. No proxy armies. No missile loopholes. No agreement that depends only on your personal strength while you are president.
Please, Mr. President, think not only about the deal.
Think about what happens after the deal.
Think about what happens after your presidency.
Think about how the mullahs will use time.
That is 4D chess.
Do not give them what they want most.
Do not give them time.
