As I began an essay reviewing Ayatollah Iran's nuclear weapons quest, President Donald Trump appeared on real-time TV and announced, "They are going to make a deal ... And they're talking sense."

OK. In our digitally connected world, ubiquitous videos of Trump's Iran military operation (from gun, drone and targeting cameras) have partially dissipated the fog of war. Believe your eyes.

U.S. and Israeli weapons have plastered Ayatollah Iran's offensive and defensive weapon systems and obliterated munitions caches and logistics capabilities. Israeli strikes on Iranian command centers and "known locations of high value targets" (HVT — big shot ayatollahs, secret police goons, etc.) have created a leadership vacuum. The better part of two top leadership echelons has been killed.

Which leads to this question: Who is this "they" you mention, Mr. President? And what do they say that constitutes sense?

Various instant media sources report "third country" mediators are in contact with the "they." One talking head pegged "they" as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers. That's plausible. The IRGC is essentially Iran's army. IRGC big shots have guns and a few loyal gunslingers, so they can defend themselves against never-surrender diehard ayatollah fanatics.

My guess: Whoever they are, they are men scrambling for post-regime power or men who want to survive the regime's collapse — or both.

Subsequently, Trump told reporters that these unidentified souls possessing common sense have agreed to his demand that the Iranian state never acquire nuclear weapons.

Quote: "They've agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon."

Trump's Iran bottom line — first stated in 1987 (oh, yes) — is that Iran can never and will never have nukes.

Ignore the media dullards, especially self-aggrandizing pomps like The Economist who claim Operation Epic Fury has no strategy. Priggish pish. I've served in a U.S. military theater operational joint planning position. Epic Fury's design is brilliant and its intent crystal clear: eliminate the ayatollah regime's ability to defend itself — meaning eliminate its military, police and defense support personnel and systems.

So far, the execution is better than brilliant. War is hell. We are witnessing brilliant hell.

Why do — or did — the ayatollahs seek nuclear weapons? The ayatollahs have made mega-enemies, foreign and domestic. Their despotic and corrupt political structure oppresses the Iranian people, wages proxy wars worldwide, runs criminal syndicates worldwide and exacts a threat toll on oil shipments in the Persian Gulf. There's also the Islamist card. Sarcastic ayatollahs declared Israel a "one bomb state."

But self-survival is the deep reason. The ayatollahs run (ran?) a version of the North Korea Scam: possessing nukes ensures an evil regime will survive since it can respond to an attack with a nuclear strike. The terrorist regime survives via balance of terror.

Which leads to the question the American people and the rest of the world should ask: How did we get here?

The answers: Guilt trips and cowardly appeasement.

President Jimmy Carter let Iran's shah fall because he felt guilty about the CIA. Cold War-era Russian propaganda and leftist media in the U.S. and Europe amplified the guilt trip.

By the early 1990s, it was clear the ayatollah regime was evil and interested in building nuclear weapons.

The Obama administration practiced appeasement with cash. Once upon a time, President Barack Obama vowed to halt Iran's nuclear weapons quest.

So, practicing self-proclaimed smart diplomacy, his administration produced the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the Obama-Biden faculty club administration's ridiculous name for appeasing Iran's radical religious dictatorship.

The JCPOA gave Iran money. Obama's deal lifted sanctions and kickstarted the Iranian economy. With that money, the ayatollah regime waged a dozen small wars. Iranian agents also conducted or financed violent meddling operations in at least 30 different countries.

The cash also financed nuclear weapons research and ballistic missile production.

To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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