Middle East Forum

Stryder50

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As many may have noticed, there is no shortage of "news" and "views" on the near eternal Middle East Issues/Crisis's.
I've found one source in recent years that provides the most complete and least biased, more objective news and information is the Middle East Forum.

This is a recent example;

The Long Game: Taking the Fight to America’s Pro-Tehran Apologists​

The U.S. President and Israeli Prime Minister Proved That American Power, Properly Applied, Remains Decisive

June 21, 2025
Gregg Roman
....
Tonight, American forces destroyed Iran’s nuclear program. This wasn’t impulse. It was the execution of a plan that began in 2017.

When President Donald Trump first took office, he established a joint working group between the American and Israeli National Security Councils. Not for immediate action. For preparation. The kind that takes years and pays off in hours.

For months, Washington and Jerusalem ran an information campaign that would make the KGB proud. They fooled Tehran. They fooled talking heads of the far left and woke right. They fooled the think tank experts who fancy themselves too smart to be fooled.

Here’s what matters: Iran’s nuclear facilities are rubble. Their thirty-year investment in atomic blackmail ended in one night. Now Tehran faces a choice. Retaliate and risk the regime’s survival or launch some missiles at empty desert and call it even. We saw this movie after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. They’ll probably choose the sequel.

The real victory extends beyond smoking reactors and enrichment facilities. For years, an alliance of convenience united American isolationists with Tehran’s apologists. Strange bedfellows: far-left activists and self-styled conservative voices, all singing from the same hymnal. All pushing the same line: American retreat equals wisdom.

Groups like the Quincy Institute and National Iranian American Council (NIAC) didn’t just push policy papers; they pushed Tehran’s agenda, whether they admitted it or not. Some knew exactly what they were doing. Others were useful idiots. Tonight, their influence died alongside Iran’s centrifuges.

The sophistication of this influence operation deserves recognition, if only to prevent its resurrection. They didn’t just work the left. They used mirror tactics on the right. Political cheerleaders from 2024 suddenly became foreign policy sages, pushing positions that served Tehran’s interests. The talking points were consistent because the source was singular.

Look at who aligned with whom. When Candace Owens and Code Pink agree on foreign policy, when Tucker Carlson mimics Trita Parsi, when isolationist conservatives find common cause with the Palestinian solidarity movement—somebody should ask why. Tonight, we got the answer.

The operational excellence displayed deserves its own analysis. From Israel’s elimination of Hezbollah leadership to the pager operations, from the shaping exercises to tonight’s strikes—this was integrated warfare at its finest. Israeli pilots flew continuous sorties while American planners prepared the knockout blow. CENTCOM’s commander cut short congressional testimony because he had work to do—real work.

Yesterday, European diplomats scrambled to arrange meetings with regime representatives. They sensed something coming. They were too late. They always are.
The path forward is clear.

First, secure and remove Iran’s nuclear materials. Second, maintain momentum. The regime’s American supporters will regroup. They’ll blame escalation. They’ll warn of wider war. They’ll do what they always do: serve Tehran’s interests while claiming to serve America’s.

This is where the real fight begins. The same investigative techniques used against those promoting American interests in the Middle East must be turned on them. Follow the money. Trace the connections. Expose the networks. Use their own methods against them.

A U.S. District Court once found that the work of NIAC president and founder Trita Parsi was “not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the [Iranian] regime.” The NIAC paid $183,000 in sanctions for discovery violations in that case. These are the people shaping the “anti-war” narrative. These are the voices warning against American strength.
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America is back. Not the America that apologizes for its power, but the America that uses it.
 

After Striking Iranian Sites, the U.S. Should Strengthen Its Presence in Kurdish Regions of Iraq and Syria​

With Limited Troops in Both Countries, the U.S. Needs a Defense System That Can Intercept Tactical Ballistic and Cruises Missiles
June 21, 2025
Sirwan Kajjo

With U.S. warplanes targeting three nuclear facilities inside Iran, the U.S. officially engages in the Israel-Iran conflict. The Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq had threatened that any direct U.S. involvement would trigger retaliation against American interests in the region. Those threats must be taken seriously.​

The U.S. military must immediately fortify its various bases across Iraq and Syria, particularly those located in the Kurdish regions of both countries. While other U.S. assets elsewhere in the Middle East are equipped with more robust defensive systems, U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria have remained relatively vulnerable to drone and rocket attacks by Iranian-backed groups.

The U.S. maintains two military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan and another one in the Kurdish-controlled northeast of Syria, as well as several smaller outposts across both regions. These installations have played a critical role in U.S.-led efforts against the Islamic State over the years.

The U.S. consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the nearby U.S. base at Erbil airport are equipped with an air defense system that have been largely effective in intercepting drones and mortars launched by Tehran’s proxies in Iraq. However, the C-RAM system’s defensive capabilities are primarily designed to counter small-scale threats.

Given the rising tensions in the region, the U.S. should anticipate more sophisticated and large-scale attacks from Iran and its allies and immediately deploy advanced anti-missile defense systems to deter and counter such attacks.

The MIM-104 Patriot system possesses the capabilities needed to meet this challenge. While the U.S. deployed this system to Iraqi Kurdistan following the outbreak of the Gaza war, it should urgently dispatch another one to Kurdish Syria. Doing so would provide U.S. forces with a valuable strategic edge across the broader theater. This would be especially important if Lebanese Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy, chooses to join the fight against U.S. forces. With a limited number of troops already deployed in both countries, the U.S. stands to benefit significantly from a defense system capable of intercepting tactical ballistic and cruises missiles.
....
 

Iran May Close Strait of Hormuz: ‘Take the Oil’ and Sink the Navy​

The U.S. Should Counter This Threat by Seizing Kharg Island, the Terminal Through Which 90 Percent of Iran’s Oil Is Exported

June 22, 2025
Michael Rubin
National Security Journal
....

90

If Iran moves to close the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. should issue an ultimatum to Iran’s two navies—the IRGC’s coastal patrol and the regular blue-water navy to either dock and surrender or be sunk, thus ensuring freedom of navigation without a broader, destructive war on Iranian soil.

Shutterstock

Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz? Seize Kharg and Sink the Iranian Navy​


Following the U.S. bombing of Iran’s three most fortified nuclear sites, the Iranian government swore revenge. The Iranian parliament voted to close the Strait of Hormuz.

However, this is more symbolic than real, given both that elected Iranian bodies have no power over security policy and that the Islamic Republic relies on the Strait of Hormuz both to export its oil and import much of its refined gasoline.

Still, the United States and its allies should counter any move to interfere with freedom of navigation and commerce across a major waterway, especially one in which its Arab allies depend for their commerce.

How Iran Must Be Punished: Take Kharg Island​


The U.S. response should be overwhelming. First, it should seize Kharg Island. Most tankers cannot safely get into Iranian ports because the Persian Gulf is so shallow, and the Iranian side is very rocky.

As a result, they load their supply from offshore terminals, the largest of which is the Kharg oil terminal on Kharg Island, 16 miles off the Iranian coast.

Iran exports approximately 90 percent of its crude oil through Kharg. Bombing Kharg will be counterproductive because if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei falls and the Islamic Republic collapses, Iran will likely become a Western ally again; its new government will need Kharg to fuel Iran’s reconstruction and bring revenue to support the new government.

Occupying Kharg would strain the Islamic Republic financially, but preserve the infrastructure.

This idea is not new: During the Carter administration, it was the centerpiece of Admiral James Lyon’s plans to compel the release of the American hostages, although President Jimmy Carter ultimately vetoed the idea.

Strike the Navy​


Continued Iranian aggression also merits a response against Iran’s two navies: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy patrols the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

It is responsible for both operations, such as the limpet mines its personnel attached to ships off the coast of the Emirati export facility at Khor Fakkan, and the interception of other tankers in international waters.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy speedboats regularly harass shipping. It is now time to sink the speedboats and the piers upon which the Revolutionary Guards depend for their vessels and the smuggling upon which the organization depends far more than its official budget.
....
 

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