Day 29 | Iran War & Beyond
One month of war. The Houthis just entered. Millions are in the streets. And Trump said last night: "It's not finished."
① On the one-month anniversary of Operation Epic Fury, Yemen's Houthis fired their first missiles at Israel and warned they may close the Bab al-Mandab strait — a second global shipping chokepoint. The war that started with one closed strait now threatens two.
② Iran struck a US-Saudi air base overnight. Ten American service members wounded. A refueling aircraft damaged. Thirteen US service members have been killed in thirty days. Trump says the war "is not finished."
③ Millions marched in the US and around the world today — No Kings Day, the third and largest iteration of the protest movement. In Paris, London, Berlin, and beyond, people who aren't American citizens marched under American constitutional slogans on the anniversary of a war they were never consulted about.
④ In public, Trump called the war won. In private, Rubio told allies it has two to four more weeks. The stated objectives have shifted at least four times. Hardline IRGC figures are consolidating control in Tehran and will demand major concessions. One month in, the war has not achieved what was promised.
⑤ Iran's Red Crescent says 93,000 civilian homes have been damaged across 30 of Iran's 31 provinces. The UN has launched an $80 million emergency appeal for refugees trapped inside Iran. 4.5 million Afghans live there. So do hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
⑥ US intelligence says the war has produced a more hardline Iran, not a more pliant one. The IRGC forced through the new supreme leader, overrode the elected president, and appointed Iran-Iraq war veterans — men who built the doctrine of "war until victory" — to key national security positions. This is who Trump needs to make a deal with.
"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." — Thomas Jefferson, 1789
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Day 29 | Iran War & Beyond One month of war. The Houthis just entered. Millions are in the streets. And Trump said last night: "It's not finished." ① On the one-month anniversary of Operation Epic Fury, Yemen's Houthis fired their first missiles at Israel and warned they may close the Bab al-Mandab strait — a second global shipping chokepoint. The war that started with one closed strait now threatens two. ② Iran struck a US-Saudi air base overnight. Ten American service members wounded. A refueling aircraft damaged. Thirteen US service members have been killed in thirty days. Trump says the war "is not finished." ③ Millions marched in the US and around the world today — No Kings Day, the third and largest iteration of the protest movement. In Paris, London, Berlin, and beyond, people who aren't American citizens marched under American constitutional slogans on the anniversary of a war they were never consulted about. ④ In public, Trump called the war won. In private, Rubio told allies it has two to four more weeks. The stated objectives have shifted at least four times. Hardline IRGC figures are consolidating control in Tehran and will demand major concessions. One month in, the war has not achieved what was promised. ⑤ Iran's Red Crescent says 93,000 civilian homes have been damaged across 30 of Iran's 31 provinces. The UN has launched an $80 million emergency appeal for refugees trapped inside Iran. 4.5 million Afghans live there. So do hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. ⑥ US intelligence says the war has produced a more hardline Iran, not a more pliant one. The IRGC forced through the new supreme leader, overrode the elected president, and appointed Iran-Iraq war veterans — men who built the doctrine of "war until victory" — to key national security positions. This is who Trump needs to make a deal with. "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." — Thomas Jefferson, 1789