The International Atomic Energy Agency’s chief, Rafael Grossi, is off to inspect Iranian nuclear sites. The West tightens its grip on Tehran’s so-called war deal. This is a farce, reminiscent of the League of Nations inspecting German rearmament in the 1930s.
The West pretends to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while the mullahs play their usual game of duplicity. We have seen this script before: inspections, delays, broken promises. The Vienna Accord was a Victorian-era gentleman’s agreement applied to a regime that respects only power, not parchment.
The fall of the Shah in 1979 should have taught us that Iran’s theocracy does not bargain; it bides its time. Grossi’s visit is a ritual, a bureaucratic dance that gives the illusion of progress. Meanwhile, Iran enriches uranium at near-weapons grade.
The West is not tightening a grip; it is wringing its hands. This is intellectual decadence, a refusal to see that some problems require more than inspections and press releases. The Roman Empire did not collapse because its enemies talked; it collapsed because it believed its own propaganda.
We are living that decline in real time.
