The ongoing debate about the damage inflicted by U.S. and Israeli forces on Iran’s nuclear weapons program is obscuring a larger – and deeply concerning – reality: What’s been described as the end of “the 12-day war” has left the mullahs still in power in Tehran, their instruments for repressing the Iranian people still operating and their Communist Chinese allies still able to infuse the regime with cash, know-how and military hardware.

Thus, as long as the ayatollahs remain in control, they can always simply buy nuclear weapons. They can use their surviving missiles, or newly manufactured ones, to attack our forces in the region and/or Israel. And they can activate jihadist cells in this country – including teams tasked with assassinating President Trump. 

Without decisive victory and a Free Iran, what we have is not peace, but more endless war with the Sharia-supremacists. 

This is Frank Gaffney.