When I was in town today, I noticed that a name brand filling station and convenience store was selling unleaded regular gasoline for $4.09 a gallon. The price that store was asking for diesel fuel was over $5.00 per gallon. Earlier in the week, I purchased unleaded gasoline from the same company at a different location for $3.92 a gallon. This is a snapshot, and it may not accurately represent the average price of fuel in our area. You can get blended gas for a few cents less. It does show, however, that you have to pay high prices for gas and diesel fuel right now.
It reminded me that there is a ration card my mother saved from World War II in our family papers. During that war, people sacrificed in order that the war effort could be successful. Our current military effort in Iran is very different from World War II. However, in any war it is necessary for the folks back home to share some of the burden.
While there may be other factors at play regarding fuel prices, the Iranians have closed off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and the reduction in the world’s oil supply is driving the price of oil higher. President Trump has issued an ultimatum to Iran. If they refuse to allow shipping through the strait, the United States will attack Iran’s electrical infrastructure. It is uncertain whether the Ayatollahs care, but there will be hardship for everyone in Iran if that happens. When the choke point is relieved, we hope that gas prices will go down.
The public dialogue is replete with praise and criticism regarding our military effort in Iran. Please allow this small attempt to bring clarity to the discussion.
The prospect of the radical Islamist regime in Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is the western world's worst nightmare. If they get the bomb, they will use it or threaten the use of it to force the nations of the world to do their bidding. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) would have Americans believe that there is no imminent Iranian nuclear threat to the US because Iran does not have a delivery system that can reach our shores. * This argument ignores some very important considerations, some of which might include:
There is more than one way to skin a cat, and there is more than one way that Iran can deliver a nuclear strike against the USA. Furthermore, by treaty if Iran delivers a missile borne nuclear strike on one or more of our NATO allies, we must treat it as an attack on the United States. Iran has pledged to destroy Israel. A nuclear attack by Iran on Israel would draw the United States into a conflict that might possibly involve a nuclear response on Iran by Israel. There is no way to know if Russia and China would stay out of that fight.
Whatever temporary sacrifices we need to make to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons are worth it. If I have to pay even more for a gallon of gas to get that done, I will do it happily. We cannot pass on to our children and their children the prospect of a nuclear attack from a terrorist regime like the one in Iran. The Ayatollahs must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. It would be like giving a five-year-old a loaded pistol at a birthday party.
President Trump and his team have stated that regime change it's not a goal in Iran for now, but simply put, if regime change does not happen, we cannot permanently rid ourselves of the threat of a nuclear Iran. They will continue to try to obtain nuclear weapons until they get them.
Fellow citizens, it is rare
for anything worthwhile to be achieved without effort on somebody's part.
Please believe as I do that the inconveniences we are experiencing are worth
it, and they will end when our mission in Iran is accomplished. Give President Trump
the room he needs to operate. If permanently ending the threat of a nuclear
Iran is all we accomplish, what the President is doing is in our long-term best
interests.
* Fox News "The Sunday Briefing" interview of Ro Khanna by Jacqui Heinrich 15 March 2026
