We’ve Been at War with Iran for 45 Years. It's Time to End It on Our Terms

The question isn’t whether we should go to war with Iran—it’s whether we finally have the courage to win the one we’re already in.

Another tired, circular debate currently consumes Washington. This week’s episode features a roundtable of Very Serious People asking, “Should the U.S. go to war with Iran?” Politicians bloviate, analysts scribble think pieces, and TV generals offer vague warnings about “regional escalation.” However, the question itself is a ruse. We’re already at war with Iran. And we have been for nearly half a century.

How is it that 45 years of "Death to America" and terrorist activities across the Western world don’t count as war unless CNN gives it a chyron?

Let’s stop the theater. America has been at war with Iran since disco died and the Ayatollah rose. It began in 1979, to be precise, the year we went from being an ally of Iran to the “Great Satan” with a passport. That wasn’t a metaphor. It was a manifesto. It’s a war that’s taken place in the background, like a smoke alarm we’ve all grown accustomed to. And now that we finally have a chance to turn it off for generations, the foreign policy class is fumbling around for the snooze button.

Remember the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran? It was an act of war if ever there was one. Fifty-two Americans were taken hostage for 444 days. Iran opened its new government with a kidnapping, and we responded with strongly worded letters and Jimmy Carter's malaise. Since then, Iran has waged a steady, low-grade, asymmetrical, and “undeclared” war on the United States, calling openly for our annihilation.

Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, responsible for more American and allied deaths than we can count. Iran's fingerprints are all over the maiming and killing of U.S. servicemembers in Iraq through its proxy militias and its lethal export: shaped-charge IEDs that killed or gravely wounded thousands of American soldiers.

So what did we do when it was all over in Iraq? Send John Kerry to shake hands with monsters who openly call for the annihilation of America, then act surprised when they use pallets of cash we foolishly provide to buy missiles instead of date syrup and water filtration systems.

Iran arms and trains Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen—groups whose only unifying principle is hatred of the West, and especially of Israel and America. And they aren’t shy about it. They parade their missiles through Tehran with “Death to America” scrawled in English for our benefit. Their military leaders routinely boast that they can “wipe Tel Aviv off the map” and “strike the heart of Washington.” Their Supreme Leader vowed just yesterday, in no uncertain terms, that American blood will be spilled across the region.

These are not drunken barroom threats from rogue actors; they are official proclamations from a regime that views itself as engaged in a holy war against the modern world.

What has changed is not the reality of war; it’s the opportunity we now have to end it decisively.

Should we go to war with Iran? Folks, we’re already in it. We just keep pretending it’s a documentary when it’s actually a war film.

But here’s the good news: Israel has proven that Iran, for all its snarling and sabre-rattling, is basically a paper tiger with a beard. When it comes to America, Iran only swings when we tie our hands behind our backs first. Their economy is crumbling, their people hate them, and Israel just kneecapped their entire regional operation like a mob enforcer with a bat.

The time for diplomacy was decades ago. The moment for half-measures passed when American soldiers returned home in coffins draped with flags, victims of Iranian weapons.

We should not fear “starting a war” with Iran. That war started long ago. The only real question is whether we finally finish it. With Iran weakened, isolated, and exposed, we have a narrow window to cripple their nuclear ambitions and dismantle their terror network permanently. Not through occupation or endless nation-building, but through decisive, overwhelming force against the regime’s military, nuclear, and command infrastructure.

If we fail to act now, we will look back on this moment as the last, best chance to avoid a far more dangerous future—one where Iran is nuclear-armed, where its threats are no longer laughable, and where its proxies are emboldened beyond repair.

We will not get a better moment than this. War is not coming; war is here. Let’s win it.