Iran: taunting, egging on

May 07, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – Impression is of tables turned. Overwhelming military dominance still favors America, hasn’t changed. The same applied over 50 years ago. Hanoi was immovable, self-sacrificing then, with names like Ho Chi Minh and Nyguen Go Giap willing the battle forward. Today, there’s Teheran, and mostly faceless, nameless, men who relish egging on an opponent that’s easily unsettled, drama prone, not fully operational.

From Teheran to Washington: “We are just getting started.” And “We know well that…the status quo is intolerable for America.” Iran is taunting Washington. Want more war? Keep coming. Come closer. Iran is lighting a fire under President Trump, now trapped between the devil and Hormuz Strait. Want land and oil and control of those prizes? Come get it. American troops readied for a ground invasion; Iran says a million are waiting. The more Iran’s reactions are absorbed, the more it is itching to suck in its sworn enemies. What the US now find itself embroiled in: a quagmire or a cluster f***?

Iran was supposed to be running out of drones, missiles, other weapons of war. Its neighbors-especially the UAE-will not agree, when recent bombardments are weighed. What’s Iran’s strategy relative to them? It could be to suck in other injured parties, with an apocalyptic vision to drive the Middle East to an overflowing boil. What started out as a war for land and oil, could unmake the dollar, unleash a religious war. The corrosive Sunni-Shia divide nearing explosive expression. There are few countries that prides itself like Iran in its dedication to the pull of sacrifice. Having been badgered and brutalized, the time to lash back at tormentors has been gifted to it. What Iran lacks in skills it has in will – a long war of attrition.

From the US perspective, that would be a worst-case scenario. Body bags are not favoured packages Stateside. The CNN enhanced Gulf War made for good TV entertainment with the good guys storming freely through Kuwait and to the outskirts of Baghdad, with a palatable bad guy in Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. The question today is who has right on their side and who is on the wrong side of this now increasingly forbidding war? Moreover, target Iranian economic infrastructure, and it has already demonstrated in clear and convincing terms that two can play that dangerous game. Thus, the battle hangs in the balance: unconditional surrender or respectful ceasefire?

The Iranian High Command boasts many who hold martyrdom as a badge. Sure, it’s an unwinnable war, but with a consolation prize. In going down, take down as many as can be had. It is why I say again, Iran could be egging on its enemies, whether from under the Islamic tents, or farther away, those it described as Satan and evildoers. Americans have a history of making terrible sacrifices, but the cause has to be just. Emancipation of slaves and keeping the Union intact. Save the world from Aryan supremacy, preserve economic hegemony, and ward off threats from the then Yellow Peril. When the treachery of Pearl Harbor (subject to different interpretations) was added to that volatile formula, few Americans could be, or stood, against total war and committing US resources to deliver the job.

Where is any of that today? In scale and degree? The basis for the War on Iran is suspect. It’s hard to support. Trust is not where it should be for the leadership in Washington and Tel Aviv. Whatever kind of war it turns out to be, it has already gone on too long, with pain felt, and the final price uncounted. For a country so deep in debt, this is the wrong war at the wrong time. From all indications, Iran looks like the wrong target. All that it has to do is buy time, eke out some tiny missile successes, and stomach upset rages in foreign capitals. From conflict pains to economic pains. It’s not the type of choice that’s appealing. Bring it on.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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egging on, Iran, Iran war, taunting, Teheran

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