According to Taha, the destruction of some Iranian military equipment does not mean the Islamic Republic has been defeated. In the Middle East, he warned, leaving the regime, its ideology, its missile program, its proxies and its terror networks intact is like claiming victory over ISIS because several pickup trucks were destroyed.

Taha’s central point is that Iran’s threat to the region never depended on having a powerful navy or air force. For decades, the regime has terrorized its neighbors through drones, missiles, militias and proxy organizations. The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Israel and others have all felt the force of Tehran’s regional strategy. Hezbollah still exists. The networks still exist. The ideology still exists. Most importantly, the regime still exists.

That is why Taha rejects the idea that this can be called “peace through strength.” If the same regime is now rewarded with hundreds of billions of dollars, he says, it is not victory — it is paying the arsonist after he burned down the neighborhood.