The Disappearing Off-Ramp in Iran
17th March 2026
The Atlantic, a Voice of the Crust.
The window for Donald Trump to end the Iran war by simply declaring victory and walking away is rapidly closing. Soon he will face a stark choice: He can take greater risks in pursuit of a decisive tactical success, prepare the country for a prolonged conflict that could last for many months, or seek a negotiated settlement that involves a real compromise with Tehran.
There is no ‘compromise with Tehran’ because Tehran has proven repeatedly that they can’t be trusted. Iran cannot support terrorism surrogates like Hamas and Hezbollah without money, real money, Western hard currency, and that requires them to sell oil. Once Israel and the U.S. have destroyed their armed forces, their security forces, any portion of their government that crawls out of its holes, and their ability to extract and refine oil, they will have no capability to support terrorism or (more important) build nuclear weapons. That destruction is now underway.
We have ben at war with Iran since they invaded our embassy 47 years ago; the problem has always been that they have been fighting that war and we haven’t. Trump decided to start fighting back, and the Muslim-appeasers and hand-wringers in the Narrative Media keep hoping that their long faces and wagging fingers will get him to quit. That never worked before, and it won’t work now.