Negotiating With Madmen

Thursday, May 7, 2026

The host is very worried about the 14-point deal with Iran that has the chattering classes chattering at hyper speed.  I don’t like it either, but I tend to be in the Mark Levin camp here – I don’t believe it.  The appeasers in the administration may have leaked it as a trial balloon.  Trump may have leaked it to buffalo the Iranians a bit.  Or a thousand other things.  Who knows, but it has an air of significance and that is troubling.  But then, I am deeply pessimistic about negotiations – period, full stop.

The reasons for my pessimism are twofold.  The Iranians are proven and continuous liars.  The religion to which they hold so fanatically tells them to lie to infidels, which we are.  They would insist the sky is Tennessee orange and that they had a moon base  if they thought it would create an advantage for them.  I also know they would construct the most elaborate system to cover-up and maintain their lies – a system far beyond what any of us would even consider.  How do you negotiate with that?

Second thing to remember, and the administration has admitted this, they are lunatics.  There are no depths to which they will not sink.  We cannot forget that this whole thing started with internal economic riots.  The people in the country were in dire straits – and this war has only made it more dire.  The mullahs gunned down 42,000 (the president’s number in his interview with the host Monday) and I for one think they will continue to shoot people, or otherwise see to the death of people, just to make sure there are enough resources for themselves.  Their behavior is tantamount to holding the entire population of the nation hostage – cruelly and eventually fatally hostage.

I cannot go into details here, but I have personally been in negotiations with people on the wrong side of the crazy line.  Of course, not with these high stakes, but the principles remain the same.  It is in many ways a no-win scenario.  Part of the definition of crazy is irrationality and inconsistent behavior.  Any deal struck will be driven out-of-shape by the crazy far more rapidly than any normal person could imagine.  If they don’t play by the rules of reality to begin with, how can we expect them to play by the rules of any, and I mean any, agreement?

Regime change has, in my opinion, been the only option in this conflict from the beginning.  The host has said repeatedly since the 14 points were released that the mullahs don’t have to be humiliated.  But that is where he does not understand the crazy.  Anything other than their desire of the moment is humiliating in their eyes.  The crazy creates a situation where the only choice is capitulation or humiliation – thus eliminating the possibility of a win-win deal.

This president is the ultimate negotiator, the ultimate dealmaker.  I am sure he went into this thinking he could eventually strike a deal – that military action was just another negotiating lever.  With any rational player that would be true.  But these people are not rational.  He said himself on Monday:

 The one thing I will say is they talk a lot differently when they’re talking to me than they talk when they’re talking to the media or the television set.

That is not rational.  They cannot be trusted because whatever comes out of their mouth is suddenly different dependent on circumstances.

Maybe the president is trying to create the public perception of a negotiated end to the conflict to relieve pressure from a number of sources and to put the Iranians in some sense of ease?

All I know is there is no win-win possible here because the Iranians will not allow it.  Our only options are regime change or capitulation.  I pray, earnestly for the former.