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The Brew: What Will Happen in Iran? What Should We Pray for and What Should We Do?

U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Juan E. Diaz

By John Zmirak Published on June 20, 2025

The MAGA coalition is being tested again by the prospect of direct U.S. involvement in Israel’s just war against the genocidal regime in Iran. Many long-term Trump stalwarts are solidly against the U.S. getting dragged into a Middle Eastern conflict, given that the number of previous U.S. involvements in the region that succeeded is exactly zero. You can make that point (which I’ve made for two decades) without slipping into conspiracy theories that falsely blame Israel for every American foreign policy blunder. Just think of John Kerry, Joe Biden, and George W. Bush. We are perfectly capable of screwing things up all on our own, thanks very much.

The duty of any statesman is to avoid needless extremes, to choose the Golden Mean of prudent, virtuous action that respects the moral law and benefits the Common Good of his country. We pray that President Donald Trump and his team have this ancient maxim in mind. They must reject the temptations sent by the Enemy to make some reckless decision in one direction or the other — regardless of how loud the voices among their supporters calling for some delusional extreme that will cause far more harm than good may be.

One way to find that middle course is to consider likely worst-case scenarios that might emerge from either extreme. There are two equally unacceptable outcomes the U.S. could help bring about, if we act unwisely:

Nightmare #1: We Walk Away

If Israel stops its offensive prematurely and the U.S. stays uninvolved, the apocalyptically minded Iranian regime could go right back to developing nuclear weapons — and might well use the first one it develops to obliterate Israeli cities, fulfilling an Islamic mandate and avenging its recent humiliating defeat at Israel’s hands. Millions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike would die, and other Islamic regimes might seize the opportunity to overrun a prostrate Israel. The Christian holy sites in the Holy Land might be destroyed, or like Chernobyl, rendered unsafe for human habitation.

Obviously, as Americans and decent human beings, let alone Christians, we couldn’t accept such an outcome, and we must hone our policies to render it impossible.

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Nightmare #2: We Try Bombing and Occupying Iran Until It Turns into Switzerland

To prevent Nightmare #1, we join wholeheartedly in the effort not just to disarm Iran but to overthrow its regime. We listen to the siren songs of exiles who assure us (as Iraqi emigres once did) that U.S. troops would be “welcomed with open arms” and “greeted with flowers.” That actually happened in Iraq — for a few halcyon days. After that, the country spiraled completely out of control, as Middle Eastern countries pretty much always do when there isn’t some local tyrant with a firm hand and a ferocious secret police running them. We lost thousands of troops as 600,000 civilians died, three-fourths of previously safe local Christians got ethnically cleansed, and the West was flooded with refugees. Afghanistan went pretty much the same way.

Remember that Muslims in the Middle East often tend to be more secular. Once they get to the U.S. or to Europe, the religion they might have shrugged at suddenly becomes a point of difference and pride. Radical imams in local mosques encourage them to seek to outbreed the natives and impose sharia, or engage in acts of terror. Their children grow up more radicalized than most Muslims are in Iran right now, where the regime and its creed are increasingly despised. But now they’re in our midst, and often on the dole.

This outcome is equally as bad as Nightmare #1, and would devastate Christian communities and countries — especially America, which would foolishly accept hundreds of thousands of the refugees we’d created, then suffer from their presence. Right now Nightmare #2 seems more likely, as Conservative HQ reports:

As the war to end the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear weapons program entered its fifth day President Donald Trump said that the Iranian’s had reached out for negotiations, adding that it was “too late.” He later suggested during a White House event that American forces may participate in strikes against the Islamic republic.

Responding to reporters following Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejection of his calls for unconditional surrender, President Trump said, “You don’t know that I am going to even do it. You don’t know. I may do it, I may not do it, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” as America’s newest and largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford set sail for the Mediterranean Sea.

Let’s pray for good sense, charity, and true discernment for everyone involved — from podcasters up through POTUS.

Read Our Iran War Special

This issue is so urgent that several of our best contributors chose to weigh in on the prospects and dangers our nation faces in this crisis. Check out the lineup we’ll have for you here on The Stream throughout the rest of the day:

It’s also worth watching the provocative back-and-forth between two American patriots and strong Trump supporters, Senator Ted Cruz and broadcaster Tucker Carlson, which has been making headlines and fueling social media wars for the past few days:

Visiting a Nation That Lost the Faith

I’m just getting back from three weeks on the road, about which I’ll write more soon. Expect anecdotes from the Hope for the Future cruise I took with the great Eric Metaxas and a few hundred of his fans. En route home, I visited England. On Tuesday I went to the Tower of London, the great fortress William the Conqueror built to enforce his conquest of the English.

Looking around, I couldn’t help thinking the English had been conquered all over again — given how many hijabs I saw in the streets. I thought, We all accept that it’s okay for the Indians, the Chinese, the Nigerians, and the Peruvians to be majorities in their homelands. But express that sentiment about the English, the Danes, or the French, and suddenly you’re literally Hitler — even though the literal Hitler also tried to deprive those very races of their homelands.

I’d meant to go see Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, but something stopped me. In part it was a sore lower back, obtained the old-fashioned way: climbing Greek stairs to see Greek ruins. Maybe there was something more, however, that sent me to my hotel room. Had I been at Westminster, I would have been present for the bleakest event in British history, worse than the Blitz or even the Black Plague:

Britain’s Parliament took this decision lightly, almost frivolously, as some Britons remarked:

I’m glad I wasn’t there for that. The proliferation of demons clustered around the Mother of Parliaments that day might have upset my fragile digestion. But Jules Gomes will have a more detailed report on that for us early next week, so stay tuned.

Glimpsing the Ruins of Christendom

The nadir of my trip abroad came at what I’d imagined would be its zenith: a visit to Hagia Sophia, in the former Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). That former Greek Orthodox cathedral, for 1,000 years the largest building on Earth, stands now as a hybrid mosque/museum. Its bare bones are still astonishing, like those of some looming dinosaur in a natural history exhibit. In a few heartbreaking places, you can see a glimpse or two of the icons of Christ, angels, and saints peeking out from the whitewash the Muslims splashed over it after drenching the cathedral’s floors with Christian blood.

The tour guide was respectful, and many secular Turks do try to preserve the haunted building for history’s sake. But I couldn’t help feeling as I tramped through the place as if I’d returned to the home my ancestors had built only to find that some drug cartel had captured the place and covered the walls with gang signs and graffiti. Nor could I help wondering if similar buildings in Paris, Vienna, and Rome will in 100 years or fewer be likewise mutilated in the service of a false, warrior creed.

I got out of Istanbul and back on the ship as quickly as possible. On board I ran into Eric Metaxas — who it turned out had had the very same reaction. He agreed when I reflected, “I have no interest in the Turk or in his works.”

Along The Stream…

In addition to all the other pieces we’ll have for you today (mentioned above), here’s an encouraging column from Focus on the Family President Jim Daly you may have missed on why Gay Activists Are Flat-Footed Now That the Shoe Is on the Other Foot. It will help you get through the rest of what used to be known as Pride Month.

 

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.