Dateline:      DisharmonyVille, April 20, 2026

A lot of analysis of the Iran conflict has been published. Here’s a different take for your consideration.

Unless it launches nukes, which it doesn’t currently have, the Iran leadership knows it can’t beat us militarily. So, to win the conflict the leaders are going for Trump’s political jugular.

With our midterms a mere hop, skip and a jump away, Iran is playing for time. The longer a resolution is delayed, the worse it gets for Trump. He knows that without a positive outcome and soon, the GOP will lose seats in the House and even the Senate. To avoid a major midterm defeat he may be forced to declare victory and depart the field leaving Iran, with its enriched uranium and lunatic leadership, to rebuild from the rubble.

Iran is dragging out the conflict by playing Trump like a fiddle. The notion of a split leadership in Iran with the ‘moderates’ on one side and the ‘crazies’ on the other is an illusion. The idea that the crazies would allow moderates to negotiate is foolish. Since when has division been tolerated in Iran’s power structure? Since never. The crazies, who obviously have the firepower, would just kill the moderates. Rather than being a divided leadership, it is necessarily united.

The Iranians have Trump on a seesaw. The moderates negotiate terms favorable to Trump. The U.S. markets soar, public opinion ticks up for Trump. Then the crazies close the Strait of Hormuz and fire on a few vessels. The market reacts negatively and public opinion in the U.S. dips.

Up and down. Up and down. If it goes on long enough, the Iranians will win through a GOP defeat at the ballot box.

Trump ran himself up a blind alley weeks ago by declaring victory prematurely. He better bite the bullet and get the job done. Now.