A thick darkness descended over the mountainous region. Night had fallen long ago, and the darkness was growing deeper. The freezing cold had silenced everyone. Tens of thousands of pairs of eyes stared silently into the impenetrable darkness, straining to see through the heavy blanket of clouds. Those thousands of eyes knew, with cruel anticipation, that within minutes they would turn the lives of infants, soldiers and civilians into an unimaginable nightmare.
The missiles they were preparing to launch from Iranian sites in the Zagros Mountains, Tabriz and Tehran, those that managed to penetrate the layers of missile defenses, would leave American soldiers and peaceful civilians across the Gulf states, parts of Europe and Israel with little chance of survival. In just a few minutes, Iran would unleash the deadliest missile assault in history.
US president Donald Trump
(Photo: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The world's most brutal clerical regime was about to launch a campaign intended to bring about the downfall of the "Great Satan." The ayatollahs understood that, on the road to global chaos, they would first have to neutralize the courageous president of the world's leading superpower, Donald Trump, who had joined forces with Israel, the "Little Satan," to save human civilization. That is why they had timed their attack for the eve of the U.S. midterm elections, just hours before the polls were due to open.
Nothing could stop the catastrophe that was about to befall thousands of people still asleep in their beds. Nothing could prevent Trump's defeat in the crucial midterm elections.
The deadly assault caught the world by surprise. The prevailing assumption had been that Iran was so weakened it would never dare to strike. Thousands of people, including American soldiers, were wounded, and hundreds were killed. By election morning, the headlines spoke of utter chaos. Oil prices had skyrocketed. Gulf states and European governments demanded that President Trump bring the war to an immediate end.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was forced to issue warnings urging Americans to avoid large gatherings, following Iranian threats that death squads operating on Tehran's behalf were already active on American soil.
Reports from polling stations suggested that confidence in Trump's leadership had completely collapsed.
That night, election results poured into Republican headquarters. They were devastating: The Democrats had seized control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Trump had become a lame-duck president.
The following day, the ayatollahs issued a terse statement: "The great American people have spoken. We remain open to resuming negotiations with the United States under the terms we laid out months ago. In the meantime, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until further notice."
This scenario was all but certain to unfold.
Except that it probably won't.
Because I believe that both the United States and Israel are familiar with every word of the scenario I have just described.
And with that, we enter the world of game theory.
Who will strike first?
The outcome must be examined through a single prism: Who has only one opportunity, and who has many?
For the Iranians, the only strategically worthwhile moment is the eve of the American elections, not the Israeli elections. That leaves them with just one opportunity. Reports that Israel is preparing for an Iranian attack are merely intended to justify a joint U.S.-Israeli strike against Iran
If they strike at any other time, they will be destroyed without inflicting political damage on Trump.
But Israel and the United States, which know as well as I do that Iran intends to attack, now have a multitude of opportunities.
Contrary to the views of many Western commentators, Trump does have a coherent doctrine. He is reshaping the world without blinking: reasserting control over the Panama Canal, rebuking Europe, bringing Venezuela into line, establishing a firm foothold in Greenland and, above all, making no apologies.
Anyone listening to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and General Jack Keane understands that the Iranian illusion has come to an end.
The gates of hell will be unleashed upon the ayatollahs by Israel and the United States, before the midterm elections.
The ayatollahs remind me of Stalin.
Of the three leaders of the World War II "Big Three", Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, the Soviet leader was the weakest. Yet he emerged as the war's greatest victor, simply because he was ruthless enough to sacrifice millions of his own people without blinking.
That is precisely how Tehran operates. The lives of its own citizens mean nothing to its rulers. All that matters is their own survival and their relentless pursuit of the bomb, through which they hope to dominate the entire world.
Once they possess a nuclear weapon, they will become untouchable forever.
They will blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices will soar. They will extort hundreds of billions of dollars from the Gulf states, tear hesitant Europe apart and then turn their sights on the "Great Satan."
Trump will not repeat the mistake made in dealing with Stalin.
That is why recent months have seen preparations and coordination between the United States and Israel reach their peak. Everything has taken place beneath the radar, while the administration has wisely shown no interest whatsoever in Israel's elections, all to lull the unsuspecting hen to sleep.
Shiites engage in brutal rituals of self-flagellation, beating themselves until they bleed in what amounts to religious cannibalism. This year, even the ayatollahs dared to take to the streets and participate.
They cry out for the help of a long-dead imam, demanding that their bodies be sacrificed in his name.
On a night that is drawing very near, a night of darkness and bitter cold — the United States and Israel will make all their dreams come true.