Is there one last card Trump can play with the mullahs?

by James Zumwalt 

There may be one more card President Donald Trump can play with Iran’s mullahs that could prove very telling in forcing their hand. It involves something of immense value to them—a card they have never had to play before, since they have always been calling the shots. As such, there has been no time during nearly a half century in which they have had to put their own lives in harm’s way to move an agenda forward.

Ever since coming to power, the mullahs have always viewed the Iranian people as a human bank account from which they could make withdrawals as necessary to create and maintain the ideological Islamist state they desired. The size of their withdrawals never mattered.

Whether the deaths numbered in the tens of thousands due to protests against the Islamic state Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini created and led between 1979–1989, or in the tens of thousands more lives lost under the tenure of his replacement, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (1989–2026), or in the hundreds of thousands killed on battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988), violent death was a common vice under the mullahs.

Not only have the number of deaths been of no consequence to the mullahs, but neither has who’s been sacrificed. The most heinous violations have been against those who are the most vulnerable—their children. Most unconscionable is what they did during the Iran-Iraq war.

The Iraqis prepared defensive positions that were often surrounded by minefields. Iranian attempts to penetrate them resulted in very high casualty rates. Unwilling to lose their well trained Islamic Republican Guard Corps (IRGC) soldiers, the mullahs hit upon the idea of using a more expendable asset—Iranian children.

Children as young as nine were recruited and given one to three months of training—as if that much were needed for the role they ultimately played. They were presented with plastic keys to wear around their necks. Assigned to IRGC units, they were instructed to attack Iraqi defensive positions, clearing a path through the minefields for the IRGC personnel to then follow. The children were deceptively told, should they be killed—i.e., when they were killed—the keys they were given would open the gates of paradise.

Life has always been an easy card for the mullahs to play because their lives have never been put at risk. Accordingly, Trump needs to play what we will call the “Saddam” card with the mullahs. Having fought a bloody eight-year war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that ended almost four decades ago, every mullah undoubtedly knows who the dictator was and the ultimate fate that befell him.

Unfortunately for him, Saddam felt he could trigger two wars with the U.S. and retain power in Iraq. While the first Persian Gulf War (August 2, 1990–February 28, 1991) did leave him in power, the second (March 20, 2003–December 18, 2011) did not. Forced to flee, a dirty and unshaven Saddam was eventually found hiding in a spider hole by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003.

Having ruled his country for almost 24 years, the Saddam filmed emerging from the spider hole was not the immaculately dressed dictator the world knew. Cleaned up and put on trial by his own people, Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging on December 30, 2006.

For the first time in 47 years, death has become a reality for the mullahs responsible for orchestrating those of so many others during their rule. But, as religiously self-important as the mullahs believe themselves to be, it is unlikely they wish to suffer the indignant demise of a public hanging as did Saddam.

Accordingly, with U.S. ground operations in Iran now being planned, it  is time for Trump to play the Saddam card. He needs to inform the mullahs they have one last chance to surrender and survive. They can turn themselves in now—and while they will still be tried for any crimes they have committed—they will not suffer Saddam’s fate, as they will be spared from execution.  However, for those failing to comply, the noose awaits.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/04/is_there_one_last_card_trump_can_play_with_the_mullahs.html