"The Howe Brothers and Iran" Topic

My master's thesis director at Rice was Ira Gruber, whose book was the Command of the Howe Brothers. Basically they were peace commissioners as well as commanders=in-chief and Billy Howe in particular was far more interested in negotiating than in destroying Washington. So he'd defeat GW, try to negotiate, then reluctantly fight again when that didn't work. Howe had permission to offer everything short of independence but only AFTER the Americans asked for terms.

Should I send our president my old copy?

Welcome to send him what you want Doc. 🙂

I sent this to him yesterday. AI thought it applied to Iran.

"To punish it is to feed it
To indulge it is to breed it
Madness knows no bridle but the knife"

R. Scott Bakker

"1. "To punish it is to feed it"
When external powers attempt to aggressively punish the Iranian regime, it often strengthens the state's grip on power rather than weakening it. [1, 2]

* Sanctions and Strikes as Propaganda: Severe economic blockades, maximum pressure campaigns, and targeted military actions (such as the extensive U.S. and Israeli air strikes) cause immense suffering for the Iranian populace. However, the regime exploits these actions. It utilizes a Shiite theological framework that sacralizes suffering and frames hardship as a form of moral and spiritual victory against external aggression. [1, 2, 3, 4]
* Perverse Incentives for Escalation: When backed into a corner by foreign penalties, the regime's instinct is to accelerate its most dangerous behaviors—such as increasing uranium enrichment or launching proxy attacks—to force its opponents back to the negotiating table. Punishing the regime gives it the domestic "enemy narrative" it needs to justify brutal crackdowns on internal dissidents. [1, 2, 3, 4]

2. "To indulge it is to breed it"
Conversely, attempting to appease or indulge the regime by lifting pressure without structural changes historically emboldens its regional ambitions. [1]

* Funding Regional Aggression: When economic restrictions are eased or frozen assets are released, the Iranian state rarely funnels that windfall into local welfare. Instead, it uses those resources to breed and maintain its "Axis of Resistance" proxies (like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis), expanding its asymmetric influence across the Middle East. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
* Leverage for Reconstruction: Even following the mid-2026 U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement, which granted temporary oil sanctions relief to facilitate nuclear talks, analysts note that the regime immediately treats diplomatic indulgence as political leverage. Rather than reforming, they use the breathing room to survive, recover, and rebuild their military apparatus. [1, 2, 3]

This concluding line of the proverb—"Madness knows no bridle but the knife"—means that an irrational, escalating force cannot be managed, reasoned with, or gently steered; it can only be stopped by absolute destruction. [1, 2, 3]
When applied to geopolitics and the Iranian regime, this grim concept represents the tipping point where diplomacy is abandoned for structural elimination:

* The Failure of the "Bridle": A bridle is used to guide and control a beast. In foreign policy, "bridles" are mechanisms like the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, conditional sanctions relief, or targeted red lines. The quote suggests that when a state's driving ideology behaves like "madness"—prioritizing ideological expansion and proxy warfare over its own economic survival—it will continually snap those reins. [1, 2, 3]
* The Interventions of the "Knife": The "knife" represents severe, decisive force meant to sever the threat entirely rather than manage it. Geopolitically, this maps to absolute kinetic disruption, such as the major U.S. and Israeli air strikes aimed at physically dismantling Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure. It implies that if a system is fundamentally unmanageable, opponents will eventually conclude that surgical destruction is the only viable path forward.
* The Regime's Internal "Knife": For the Iranian people, the quote takes on an internal meaning. Decades of systemic oppression, corruption, and the violent suppression of civil uprisings have led many citizens to believe the regime cannot be reformed from within. From this perspective, the "bridle" of peaceful protest or political moderation is useless; the regime's grip can only be broken by the metaphorical knife of a full domestic revolution."

Doc,

Given the strategy really didn't work, I don't think you should it. Do you have one on how to make fanatic Islamic fundamentalists act sane?

Me! Me!

Sure… 😵 🩸 💀

I think we should destroy the Iranian power grid. Announce that we will help rebuild it under a new regime. And arm any who request it except the Kurds.

Why not the Kurds? They have made good allies in the past.

No, they took weapons meant for the resistance and kept them.

Doc, taking out the grid has way too many consequences. No oil means less fertilizer next year for the world and possible famine . No power means no desalinization facilities and no water, which Trump has already threatened. Outside of the fact that this is likely a war crime, it would surely create millions of US haters. Civilian infrastructure attacks won't bother the mullahs anyway.

How can you commit a war crime, against a country who has committed war crimes for decades themselves or has done so via their proxies?

Just righteous and overdue retribution.

Because people everywhere expect the US to set an example. We are a civilized country, the leadership of Iran are not civilized. Sadly people expect Iran to commit war crimes not the US. I would agree. I love and respect my country and feel we should be above committing war crimes.

We don't target civilians. Iran obviously does. That's how I see it.

There comes a point with some countries and individuals, when the gloves must come off. That point with me comes when the countries or individuals you are fighting continue follow a path of uncivilized warfare themselves.

In this case not only have they done so for decades, they are also consummate liars and deceivers.

Every possible avenue has been offered to Iran, multiple times! By many presidents.

Gloves off!

I read nothing about attacks last night….. MISTAKE!

Then what makes us better 35th? They send terrorists to kill civilians. So we do the same? They plant bombs and blow up civilians so then we do the same thing? What makes us better? I can tell you history will not record that we were actually the good guys and were pushed into it. It will simply say both sides committed war crimes. One reason I see the US as a great nation is that we don't approve of war crimes. We are better than Iran.

They killed our people on numerous occasions.
We have been attacked on numerous occasions.
Not just ours, others as well.
Men, women, children.

At some point, a rabid dog must be put down. You don't let it keep biting.

Same decision the allies made in WW2. Japanese, German and Italian citizens died. It was and is war. We did not start it, but we finished it.

Same here. If some believe that is bad, others won't. Just like WW2.

As daylight bombing against Germany progressed in WW2, the US actually dropped leaflets warning civilians that a target like a factory of some sort was the next day's target. It was not weakness, but it was good psychological warfare.

The Brits carpet bombed at night.
I'm sure we didn't drop pamphlets in Japan.

Pamphlets or not, all involved knew they were killing civilians.

We and all allies justified it because of the enemy we fought.

FYI I did not advocate indiscriminate bombing. But if leaders or large groups of guards are hunkering in the perceived cover of civilians, collateral damage to nail them, would not bother me. Same with missile or drone launchers or manufacturing.

They need to learn that there is no where they can hide. 💀

I'm sure you saw the large crowds of supporters at the funerals and the signs. Wasn't just men out there.