As the Iran War ends, these are the bitter terms of peace

Robert M. Levy

In a war-torn world, one thing is certain. Eventually, all wars end. The current war in Iran is no different. The United States, Israel and Iran will further negotiate. They will then realize what the terms of peace need to be. Nor will it be complicated. Those terms can be easily predicted from Episode 12 of television’s Twilight Zone. The story is entitled, “It’s What You Need.”

O.K., most people reading this column were not alive when CBS Television first aired Rod Serling’s teleplay on Christmas Day, 1959.

Nonetheless, this and all other Twilight Zone dramas are available on the Sci-Fi Channel. They can also and can be viewed for free on streaming services like Tubi. The series should be required viewing for anyone interested in the irony and karma embedded deep inside the human experience. Each show is a master class in the abnormal psychology that plagues us all, world leaders included.

The lesson of Episode 12 featured a feeble old man who gave away trinkets in a bar. “Take this,” the old man would pester the patrons. “It’s what you need.”

In one scene, the old man gave an out-of-work baseball player a seemingly useless bus ticket to Scranton and a bottle of fabric cleaning fluid. Then, just a few minutes later, out of money, the ball player got a surprise phone call at the pay phone in the hallway. He was offered a job with a minor league team in Scranton. Next, a beautiful woman offered to use the old man’s cleaning fluid to erase a stain on the player’s sport coat. She wanted him to make a good first impression. Both lovingly left the bar together.

The old man could tell the future. He heard all the aspirations and dreams so many people bring to a neighborhood bar. He knew their “wants,” but he gave them only their “needs.” That, he knew, was the true solution to their problems.

Today, Iran and the United States face a dilemma. Both want a full victory. But both need to end their war. Like the baseball player portrayed in The Twilight Zone, to solve their problem problem each has to “get what it needs,”

President Trump needs an agreement that Iran will not obtain a nuclear bomb and will not deploy missiles to deliver it. He needs to prevent Armageddon over Israel and the United States (and Europe?) On the other hand, the Mullahs need assurances that, without the protection of a nuclear weapon, their oppressive regime will survive. They need an American guarantee that neither the U.S. nor Israel will ever again promote “regime change.”

Iran wins if radical Islam survives. They truly win if the war results in radical Islam made permanent.

So, Iran will agree not to create a nuclear bomb or the means to deliver it. In return, the United States will agree that neither its forces nor Israeli forces will attack or undermine the Islamic Republic. It’s what each side “needs.”

Both Trump and the Gay Ayatollah will claim victory. In celebration, the Iranian Mullahs will hang and imprison a few thousand more dissidents. Persians will bury their dead as we all extol the work of America’s 25 military bulldozers when they extract a few kilos of nuclear dust from a remote Iranian mountain. Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis will carry on as usual.

It’s all predictable. It happened before. In October, 1962, the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. They were capable of hitting the United States with little warning. All America was scared of a Soviet bomb then just as they are now scared of an Iranian bomb.

President John F. Kennedy responded with a naval “quarantine“ of Cuba, a similar move to the current blockade of Iran. Ironically, the missile placement was a response to Kennedy’s version of Operation Epic Fury. It was called the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961.

Like Epic Fury, The United States used The Bay of Pigs Invasion to try to dislodge and replace a threatening government. And, like Epic Fury, on that level, it failed. Brutal autocrats learned. Nuclear technology is a deterrent or at least the bargaining chip needed to insure the survival of tyranny.

The Soviets and the U.S. needed to avoid a nuclear war. So, the Soviets gave up their Cuban nukes in exchange for an American guarantee that Fidel Castro’s repressive regime would survive. The solution then and now is and was the same. The cost of forcibly eliminating nuclear technology is the perpetuation of evil. And America pays that price each time it is offered.

In Iran as in Cuba, the United States will promise not to topple a despot. It will co-exist with the despot. That was the model in Venezuela. It will also be the model in Iran. It will eventually be the model in modern Cuba, too). Bluster will give way to reality. It is what everyone “needs.” It’s the price of peace.

Robert M. Levy PsyschodadRobert@gmail.com

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Robert M. Levy grew up in Moore County and graduated from Pinecrest High School. He earned a BA in history and sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his honors thesis on the Wilmington Rebellion of 1898 became part of the university’s library collection.

Admitted to the California State Bar in 1978, Levy practiced law for 40 years in California and Maryland, focusing on family and criminal law, including work with juvenile offenders and abused children. His writing on affirmative action appeared in the San Fernando Valley Law Review, and he authored Divorce: A Cynical Experience. He later earned a North Carolina teaching certificate from UNC Charlotte and taught high school social studies across Moore County.

Levy has served as chairman of the Moore County School Board, president of the North Carolina Electoral College, chairman of the Moore County Republican Party, and a columnist for The Pilot in Southern Pines. He lives in Pinehurst with his wife, Linda, and they have three children and four grandchildren.

April 18, 2026

Republished with permission.

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