I’ll open with this. There are a lot of reasons to be distressed about the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and its response. The Peace president, many will say, ought not be lobbing ordinance hither and yon. But what if it brings peace? Real peace. And despite what the Trump haters think or the few truly honest brokers of our Constitution claim in DC, this has the hallmarks of Trump’s strategic agenda.
Peace Through Strength.
Trump has been clear. We tried diplomacy. Iran is butchering people who want very much to be free of the Mullahs. Iran has only been an Islamic state for a sliver of its significant history in a land that, as Jeff Childres noted yesterday, is in “a region that has been fighting since roughly the invention of the pointed stick.”
And here we are.
The US and Israel are looking to cut off the head of the snake. The Iranian people are in open revolt. If the leadership and its support are killed, displaced, or otherwise incapacitated, what’s left belongs to Iranians. No invasions, no forever war. Here’s Prince Pahlavi. You guys decide if you want him or someone else to run the country, but it’s your country. Wanna trade?
The nuclear decapitation strike was an overnight affair.
The removal of Maduro was an Overnight affair.
This may take longer, but the streets have been filled with people ready to take the wheel. Everyone can walk away from the 47-year experiment that has funded and fueled the forever wars in the Middle East and only a few of them will have a limp.
Changing Iran won’t end the nuttiness over there, but it will do more to advance lasting peace and add to everything else Trump’s already done. And he has lots of reasons to want Iran to stop causing trouble. Peace is good for business. Israel has tons of natural gas. The other Arab states seem prepared to profit from trade instead of war. Iran is the largest and most belligerent holdout. If Persians get her back, the US has accomplished more than just ending the world’s biggest state sponsor of terror.
China and Russia will lose Iran as an ally, and the US and Israel will gain one. Strategically, it’s a huge win. It takes a bad actor from the axis of evil, and if America frees Iran of its Islamic terrorists, it has significant mineral resources waiting to be developed.
The country’s total natural and mineral wealth at approximately $27.3 trillion (including hydrocarbons like oil and gas), with the mining sector (non-hydrocarbon minerals) valued at around $1.4 trillion (assuming 50% recovery). However, only about 2% of this mineral potential has been fully discovered or explored, equating to roughly $29 billion in identified reserves as of mid-2025.
The mining sector includes over 6,000 active mines (around 6,025 in recent data) across roughly 15,000 sites. Key non-fuel minerals include:
- Iron ore: Substantial reserves, often ranked 9th globally (e.g., ~3.8 billion metric tons or ~1.9% of world reserves per USGS estimates). Iran is a significant producer of iron ore and direct-reduced iron (DRI), ranking 2nd globally in DRI in recent years.
- Copper: Major reserves, ranked 7th globally (~2.6 billion metric tons identified in some reports, or up to 3 billion tonnes of ore containing ~30 million tonnes of copper metal, ~9% of world known reserves in older data). Key deposits include Sarcheshmeh, Sungun, and Miduk.
- Zinc and lead: Ranked 6th globally in zinc reserves; over 220 million tonnes of proven zinc and lead ore reserves. Iran holds a notable share (e.g., ~3% of world lead and zinc in some estimates).
- Gypsum and barite: Ranked 5th globally for both.
- Other notable minerals: Coal, manganese, chromite, molybdenum, strontium (2nd in production), feldspar (top producer), bentonite, kaolin, salt, sulfur, turquoise, silver, gold (estimated reserves optimistic at up to 1,000 tonnes, with recent discoveries adding to this), bauxite (for aluminum), and industrial minerals like limestone, sand, and gravel.
- Emerging/critical minerals: Potential in lithium (major discovery announced in 2023 of ~8.5 million tonnes LCE in Hamedan), rare earth elements (REEs), nickel, cobalt, antimony, and others relevant to energy transition technologies.
You deny China and Russia access to this mineral wealth while gaining access to it yourself. A thankful Iran will negotiate in good faith to modernize and capitalize on that wealth. Jobs, resources, trade, and peace after a few days or weeks of long-distance diplomacy, and we know, after Venezuela, that the US has the capacity to acquire targets and collect them at will as needed, and neither Russia nor China has the means to prevent it (that we know of).
But you have to break the Mullahs first, and that seems like something that won’t happen overnight, but look on the bright side. The true fanatics are happy to die for Allah. May their 72 virgins all be transwomen.
Back in the US,
The War Powers Resolution gives the president 60 days before requiring congressional authorization, and 48 hours before notice to Congress. Even at that, every single president since its passage has treated it more like a loose guideline than a legal requirement.
This will be over in well under 60 days. I’d be surprised if it lasted a week, but let’s go long. Missile and air campaigns for the duration, and during that time, I would gladly support changes that did something, anything to stop future presidents from having so much discretion on the matter of engaging US assets in foreign lands for years at a time.
If Trump solves the biggest current problem in the Middle East, with what is currently legally at hand, will anyone want to?
We probably still should. I mean, all those other presidents abused it, and that’s why everyone is leery of this endeavor.
It’s not the power so much as the people who exercise it, and for that reason alone, we need to rein in the potential for future abuse and require Congressional Declarations of war. I bet you Trump would be happy to sign it. And just imagine if that was just another part of the strategy with this attack on Iran.
Rob China and Russia (Again) while moving the nation and its wealth into the pro-America column. Prevent that wealth from feeding and arming terrorist factions all over the planet. End the regime of a cult obsessed with erasing everyone who is not a Muslim, even if it means burning the whole world and letting Allah sort them out. And… Congress passes a change to the War Powers Act that limits future presidents and the decades of abuse.
That’d be something.
But wait, there’s more, more! An even deeper dive into over 100 years of financial entanglements. Enjoy.
