Brett Stephens, New York Times columnist, published a piece titled “A Tough But Sensible Way To Solve the Iran Problem.” I like Stephens’ work but was stunned by his outlandish proposals that he says would transfer Iran into a peace-loving, productive country. Note: I used Stephens’ words verbatim from his op-ed dated April 16 on many occasions to present his proposal.

On the other side of the coin is President Trump, who said he will solve the Iran problems without too much effort. This is nothing short of bloviation on the part of the president. Iran is not going to roll over under any circumstances. And the development of nuclear weapons by Iran represents a clear and present existential risk to the Middle East and the entire world.

What is the Iran problem? Stephens says it is that Iran will soon have weapons that they can’t be trusted with.

“Tehran has been playing Western diplomats for fools for decades.” The nuclear restrictions relating to Obama’s deal will soon be expiring. The arrangement expanded Iran’s regional influence by negotiating the elimination of economic sanctions, which increased Iran’s cash flow and enabled Iran to finance more terror activity. Also, Iran has a well-documented record of cheating on agreements that it signs. Stephens indicates that Witcoff is really naïve if he thinks that any kind of inspection or verification process will keep the Iran regime in check.

There are two paths that can be taken by the US. One is a new deal that is similar to the 2015 agreement and that Iran says it wants today. The deal is likely to fail because it does nothing to change the “character” of the regime. This is a very strange comment. It sounds like the ayatollahs need therapy.

The second path is a more ambitious and more promising way to negotiate. It’s what Stephen’s calls normalization for normalization.

Here is a list of normalization items for the United States:

The resumption of full diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington. The end to all US economic sanctions on Iran.

Thousands of student visas for Iran. United States arms sales to Iran, at least of a conventional kind.

The normalization list for Iran would have the following items:

Iran would behave like a normal country. Note: I would like to be in the room when this item is negotiated. Iran’s definition of normal is quite different than most countries. What would normalization for Iran entail?

A normal country doesn’t finance and arm terrorist groups that start regional wars and disrupt global commerce. A rich country with proven reserves doesn’t need to spend billions of dollars to enrich uranium or produce plutonium. A normal country doesn’t call for the elimination of other countries, even hostile ones. A normal country doesn’t seek to assassinate former US government officials. A normal country doesn’t hang gay people. A normal country doesn’t gang rape women in prison to enforce its honesty code.

Stephens’ list of normalizations is absurd. The first thing that one must be aware of is that Iran has never lived up to a contract that it’s made with another country. There’s no way that our negotiators can believe anything that is promised in peace negotiations. The only effective method of dealing with Iran is to actually attack them or indicate that an attack is under way if they don’t behave.

The world is in jeopardy so long as there’s a possibility that Iran can build nuclear weapons. If they did build them, they would be used to intimidate other countries in the region as well as the United States. The actual use of a nuclear weapon is something that we have to consider as a potential reality.

Stephens did not give any consideration to religious aspirations in the region. Iran is a Shiite country. Its objectives are to stop the United States from being involved in Middle East issues and to eliminate Sunni Arabs. The religious spin on the whole situation will be a major item that would need to be dealt with  in order to gain any progress in a negotiation.

Opinions like Stevens’ in this essay are bogus. The only solution is all out war where Iran’s nuclear facilities and nuclear bombs are destroyed. I fully expected President Trump is going to agree with this perspective.