In War, There Is No Substitute for Victory
It is time to bring closure and victory to our conflict with Iran.
Scott S. Powell | May 16, 2026
The fog of war is a universal description of confusion that typically accompanies the early stages of most warfare. From the outset of the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran commencing on February 28, 2026 that launched airstrikes on military and government targets, Iran responded in what appeared to be erratic ways by striking back on countries that were not part of the hostilities -- countries called the “Gulf States” that included Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Quatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Missile and drone strikes against the Gulf States continued into late March. But upon deeper quantitative analysis, the targeting of one particular nation, the UAE, with 537 ballistic missile and 2,256 drone, and 26 cruise missile attacks, was more than four times greater than the attacks on other Gulf States. In fact, Iran bombed the UAE more than it bombed Israel. Why?
According to a leading international and geopolitical analyst, Martin Amstrong, the likely reason for Iran’s intense targeting of the UAE was to precipitate a financial debt crisis. What most do not know, is that the UAE became the “Switzerland” of the Middle East after the outbreak of the Ukraine War in 2022 when the Swiss abandoned their longstanding neutrality, and began favoring Ukraine and discriminating against the Russians. With UAE’s pledge to maintain neutrality, enormous sums of money was moved out of Swiss institutions and into the banks and financial markets in Dubai, the largest city in the UAE, the undisputed #1 financial center of the Middle East, reaching a #7 ranking among global financial hubs in 2026, anchored by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The DIFC ecosystem now has 8,844 active registered firms and a workforce of over 50,200 professionals, with a $27 billion building expansion plan, which could double its capacity when completed.
Most people assume Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries like UAE have high levels of cash from oil sales. But when the UAE oil exports were curtailed after missile strikes from Iran, its banking system was also shut down for a week. What all the Gulf states have in common is vulnerability to debt crisis if they cannot monetize their oil. And that is the most plausible reason for Iran’s brutal attacks on UAE’s oil refineries and infrastructure, including the Dubai International Financial Centre. The UAE was particularly targeted not only for being one of the larger Gulf State exporters, after Saudia Arabia and Iraq but also because of its oversized and central role in banking and finance in the Middle East.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/05/in_war_there_is_no_substitute_for_victory.html
