A Bird In The Hand Is Indeed Better Than Two In The Bush

8 years ago, America and the entire world had a bird within its collective hands that prevented nuclear proliferation, a bird that would still be in the world’s collective hands today, preventing nuclear proliferation, not based on trust, but based on visual surveillance, electronic monitoring, unannounced inspection visits, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certifications, had not an American President decided that it was better to release the nuclear prevention bird the world held firmly in its hands, to pursue two birds he wrongly thought were in the bush!!!

8 years ago, on May 8, 2018, using the same misguided rationale he stated over 60 days ago, when he started the disastrous voluntary war with Iran, that Iran was close to developing an atomic bomb and the war was necessary to prevent it from becoming the military force that dominates the Middle East, President Donald Trump withdrew America from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the “Iran nuclear deal”, at the time it was the true bird in America’s and the world’s hands that was successfully preventing Iran from developing an atomic bomb. The key provisions of the JCPOA were:

• Uranium Enrichment Limits: Iran was restricted to enriching uranium to 3.67%, far below the 90% required for weapons-grade material, capped the number of first-generation centrifuges to 6,104 for 10 years, and prohibited all advanced centrifuges for 15 years
• No Plutonium Production: Iran agreed to redesign its Arak heavy-water reactor to prevent the production of weapons-grade plutonium, and Iran agreed that all stored plutonium and spent fuel would be shipped out of the country to Russia.
• No Nuclear Weaponization Research: Iran agreed to prohibitions on R&D related to nuclear explosive modeling, multi-point detonation systems, and uranium metallurgy.
• Breakout Time Extension: The agreement extended Iran’s “breakout time”—the time needed to produce enough fissile material for one nuclear weapon—from a few months to at least one year.
• Enhanced Monitoring: The IAEA was given 24-hour access to use sophisticated monitoring technology, such as fiber-optic equipment seals that could send the IAEA information; satellite imagery to detect covert sites; sensors to detect minute nuclear specimens; and tamper- and radiation-resistant cameras for visual surveillance, electronic monitoring, and unannounced inspection visits, including monitoring uranium mines and manufacturing facilities to verify Iran’s compliance. And through the Additional Protocol, the IAEA was provided with monitoring access to Iran’s nuclear facilities and information long after the JCPOA agreement expired.

Iran, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the European Union (acting as coordinator of the JCPOA agreement) were all signatories to the JCPOA. Their participation and the terms of the JCPOA made it almost impossible for Iran to cheat or renege on its agreement not to develop a nuclear weapon. Unfortunately, President Trump’s delusional worldview prevented him from seeing and understanding the nuclear non-proliferation logic of the JCPOA, so he unwisely withdrew America from it, creating the Iranian nuclear threat the world faces today.

Though he will never admit it, it is President Trump’s fault, with strong encouragement from Israel’s government, that Iran is now closer than it’s ever been to developing a nuclear bomb. When President Trump reneged 8 years ago on America’s word and withdrew America from JCPOA, all bets Iran made with the world not to pursue a nuclear weapon were off. As a result, according to President Trump’s designated Iran negotiator, Steve Witcoff, said in 2025 during nuclear negotiations, Iran admitted to having enough enriched uranium for 11 bombs.

11 years ago, July 14, 2015, when Iran finally agreed to the terms of the JCPOA, Iran was was thought to be only months away from being able to enrich enough uranium for 1 bomb. 8 years ago, in 2018, when President Trump insanely withdrew America from the JCPOA, based on the surveillance and monitoring terms of the JCPOA, Iran was certified by the IAEA to be a year away from enriching enough uranium for 1 bomb.

Now in 2026, not only does Iran likely have enough enriched uranium for 11 bombs because President Trump killed the JCPOA, but also, killing the JCPOA meant all the monitoring and verification of Iran’s nuclear program by the IAEA ended, so if they do have it, only Iran knows where the 460 kilograms of uranium at 60% enrichment for the 11 bombs is located. President Trump claimed that he obliterated Iran’s nuclear program when he ordered bomb strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities last June (2025). But he also said he started the Iran War this year in February to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb in 2 weeks.

Ronald Reagan’s Russian principle of “trust but verify” was obliterated when President Trump obliterated the JCPOA, by setting free from the world’s hands the bird of IAEA-certified certainty that Iran was not on the road to developing a nuclear weapon, in a delusional quest to capture 2 birds, the bird of Iranian regime change and the bird of permanently bombing away Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, that were never present in the bush. The same delusions that prevented President Trump from seeing the nuclear non-proliferation logic of the JCPOA. Also caused him to delusionally see 2 birds in the Iranian bush that were never there, and to ignore warnings that Iran would retaliate against America’s war aggression by militarizing, shutting down, or both the Strait of Hormuz.

Just as President Trump’s delusional decision 8 years ago created the Iranian nuclear threat that we face today, his delusional decision 2 months ago to start a voluntary offensive war against Iran has created a new Iranian economic weapon that we face today. The oil inflation and other economic chaos that Iran is currently wreaking on the world by shutting down passage through the Strait of Hormuz is a newly discovered, easily accessible economic weapon for Iran to deploy anytime they choose.

Ironically, President Trump’s choice to let go of the captured nuclear non-proliferation bird in the world’s hands, so he could capture 2 elusive birds that turned out not to be in the bush, by killing the JCPOA when he withdrew America from it, transformed Iran from being a major irritant to the world to being an imminent threat to the world. His delusional choice to start a war with Iran created a new Iranian economic weapon that has changed America’s initial war of choice against Iran, to now being America’s war of necessity against Iran. Because Iran’s new ability to inflict economic terror on the world, by restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz, when it was free for all to travel through before America started the war with Iran, cannot be allowed to stand.

While its true President Trump’s disastrous decision to let the definite bird in the world’s hand go free, so he could chase 2 elusive birds in the bush, leaves the world with no way to know or verify anything about Iran’s nuclear capability, based on America’s June 2025 bomb strikes and America’s February 2026 war strikes across Iran, it’s a safe assumption that Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon has been set back by at least a year.

This means Iran’s nuclear capability is not currently an imminent threat to world peace; currently it’s Iran’s new economic weapon of shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, that’s the immediate imminent threat Iran poses to world peace and stability, which means since President Trump and therefore America, by default, are responsible for the creation of Iran’s new economic weapon, President Trump and America must now commit the United States’ massive military capability, both equipment and boots on the ground if necessary, to eliminate the new threat to the world’s economy that President Trump has created.

Failure to do so makes all of President Trump’s delusional Iranian choices an Iranian force multiplier that strengthens Iran, and the damage done to America’s goodwill, moral standing, and credibility, if America fails to eliminate the Iranian weapon it is responsible for creating, a weapon that can wreak great economic chaos on the world economy, will make Trump’s delusional choices an American force subtractor that significantly weakens America.