Saudi Arabia said Saturday that its air defenses destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Yemen&#8217;s Houthi rebels at Riyadh, the first strike on the Saudi fighting with the Iran-backed group reignited this summer.
The Saudi-led coalition <a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-saudi-arabia-b1286cad816dd3e553f50f6dd5205972">confirmed</a> the interception hours after the dawn launch. Residents reported hearing an explosion, and journalists saw firefighters extinguish a blaze on the Aramco-branded fuel tank at a depot near King Khalid International Airport. No casualties were reported.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said the Houthis also tried to hit civilian infrastructure in Yanbu — the Red Sea terminus of a key Saudi oil pipeline — as well as Taif, Baysh and Farasan, all of which were thwarted. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260919-smoke-flames-seen-near-riyadh-airport-major-flight-disruptions-reported">claimed</a> missile, cruise-missile and drone strikes on &#8220;sensitive sites&#8221; in Riyadh and on Aramco facilities in Yanbu, calling them retaliation for a Saudi attempt to hit Sanaa.
The attack is the latest turn in a monthslong escalation. Houthi forces launched a ground offensive on September 3 and within roughly a week had overrun most of Yemen&#8217;s Red Sea coastline, including the port city of Mokha and islands controlling the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical artery for global shipping. The United Nations <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/09/18/nx-s1-5973810/houthi-attacks-saudi-oil-world-markets">says</a> the fighting has displaced around 125,000 people.
Strikes on the kingdom itself have grown more frequent. A Sept. 8 barrage wounded 73 people and set Saudi oil facilities on fire. Days later, Riyadh <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/16/middleeast/saudi-arabia-houthis-mecca-attack-intl-hnk">accused</a> the group of flying a drone toward Mecca, calling the city&#8217;s security a &#8220;red line&#8221;; the Houthis denied it. On Thursday, Saudi officials said debris from an intercepted drone killed a Yemeni resident of the kingdom — the first fatality reported on Saudi soil since the latest fighting began.
Saudi Arabia is running short on interceptor missiles, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-saudi-arabia-b1286cad816dd3e553f50f6dd5205972">according</a> to regional officials cited by the Associated Press, and has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt for air defense assistance. The United States, its principal arms supplier, has been depleted by six months of its own war with Iran and has so far limited its response to intelligence-sharing rather than direct strikes on the Houthis.

Anti-Saudi Blockade Demonstration On Yemen In 2026

Houthis Strike Saudi Capital, Marking Dangerous New Phase In Iran Proxy War

bab al-mandab strait

houthi movement

iran

saudi arabia

world

yemen

The West is unique and has a better way of life and a better way of thought.
That is a reality.
It is being proved every day, not just by conflicts between Islamic radicals and the West, but also by the way that regimes fail in the Middle East.
A perfect example of this is what is happening right now in Saudi Arabia. 
Over the past 25 years or so, the United States has sold well over $200 billion in defense equipment, training, and services to the Saudi regime. They&#8217;ve been buying weaponry from us because they have lots of oil money. We give them the money for the oil, and then they use that money to buy American-made weaponry. They also get minor grants for anti-terrorism training, and we spend billions of dollars to maintain military bases on their soil to protect them.
There are military bases on Saudi soil because we put them there originally to protect the Saudis against Saddam Hussein. They couldn&#8217;t defend themselves.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2508?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
The Saudis are getting their asses handed to them in Yemen by an Iranian terror group called the Houthis. In Yemen, the Iranians haven&#8217;t been shy about supporting the Houthis, a bunch of ragtag terrorists. The Houthis are not exactly a fearsome military power; they are impoverished terrorists.
The Houthis have a slogan, not super-catchy, but here it is: “Allahu Akbar. Death to America. Death to Israel. A curse upon the Jews and victory to Islam.”
This group of global losers is — with Iranian backing and Chinese-made weaponry — humiliating the Saudis. Over the last couple of weeks, they started pressing westward toward Yemen&#8217;s coastline.
Why does that matter? Because the coastline of Yemen is located along the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is a global choke point for the shipping of oil and is used mainly by Europe, possibly even more important than the Strait of Hormuz. They took over without the Saudis flying a single sortie from aircraft that was sold to them, an act of extraordinary incompetence.
Why? Because these regimes are not good at governing. They are terrible at building military power and they are terrible at projecting military power, even against ragtag terrorists.
Apparently, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke twice on Thursday with President Trump and urged him to strike the Houthis. Trump’s reaction? “Nah.”
The White House said, &#8220;The United States is focused on protecting our core national security interests, such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges. We are in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen government regarding regional stability.&#8221;
The Strait of Hormuz, which the United States has largely opened, is no longer under full Iranian control. So the Iranians and the Yemenis have been attempting to hit the East-West crude oil pipeline that flows from the Persian Gulf toward the other side of Saudi Arabia into the Red Sea.
They&#8217;ve been striking those pipelines to cut off Saudi oil supply. And now they&#8217;re doing the same by grabbing hold of the Bab al-Mandab Strait to cut off Saudi oil supply and artificially increase the price of oil.
The idea from Iran is: What if we just exert pressure so that nobody can export any oil via this pipeline going the other way, either by bombing the pipeline or by closing off the Strait?
Now the questions become: Where are our allies? What is Saudi Arabia doing? Why are they wildly incompetent? Where are the Europeans?
This is a Muslim-on-Muslim fight. You may have noticed that in this entire conversation, Israel has not come up.
But the Saudis are incompetent and militarily pathetic. They clearly don&#8217;t even know how to use the weapons we sold and gave them. Their air force was totally useless. The Bab al-Mandab Strait was taken over by a bunch of terrorists with speedboats. What about that vaunted Saudi, Pakistani, Turkish, NATO-like defense pact, the Mecca Defense Alliance, which was signed just weeks ago? Wouldn&#8217;t it be handy to have Pakistan and Turkey help out?
It turns out the Pakistanis and Turks are handing out free high fives while Saudi Arabia drowns. And now Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, is under drone attack, reportedly from the Houthis, which, of course, is a slap in the face to the Saudis because the Saudis see themselves as the guardian of the holy sites.
So what are the Saudis doing now? After begging the Americans to get involved, and after yelling at the Israelis for some years about fighting Islamic terrorism, they are quietly and covertly begging the Israelis to help.
What does this say about Islam as a governing philosophy? The answer is it fails. Without the West, no oil; Without the West, no defense mechanisms; without the West, no skyscrapers and no financial capacity. Nothing.
That is a reality.
That doesn&#8217;t mean there aren&#8217;t Islamic countries moving toward more sophistication or seeking alliances with the West. But the only kingdoms in the region that are actually fully embracing the West, the UAE and Bahrain, are actively being alienated by the Saudis.
The Saudis want to play this dumb game where they triangulate with the Turks, the Chinese, the Pakistanis, and the Iranians. Genius-level work from the Saudi regime.
The Saudis couldn&#8217;t even help us properly defend the bases we set up to help them in the 1990s to protect them from Saddam Hussein.
This is just another reason why the president was right to go after Iran because if Iran dominated the region, it would be able to turn the spigot on and off at will. They&#8217;re doing it right now by striking pipelines and shutting off supply routes.
Our friends in Saudi Arabia can&#8217;t do anything about it, or at least aren&#8217;t capable of doing anything about it.
This is why Iran, the head of the snake, needs to be cut off.
That is not a call for boots on the ground.
It is a call for the president to continue doing what he is doing, which is absolutely cratering the Iranian economy.

IMG_7456

It’s Time To Cut Off The Head Of The Snake

opinion

Iran-backed Houthi terrorists have rapidly expanded their foothold along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, seizing strategic territory that has put the once-ragtag militia within roughly 20 miles of a major American military base.
The Houthis captured the Red Sea port of Mokha and the strategically located Mayun, or Perim, Island last week before seizing the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands on Monday, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthis-saudi-shipping-mandeb-90dc86201ef51410ebcdd913837d741d">the Associated Press</a>. The latest gains have strengthened the group’s position around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical maritime chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.
The advances have brought the group’s fighters to within approximately 20 miles of Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the largest U.S. military base in Africa and a key hub for American operations in the region, which sits on the opposite side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the new Houthi-held territory.
The Houthi gains come as the group intensifies attacks on Saudi Arabia, raising the risk of further disruptions to global oil supplies as the war with Iran threatens shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and sends crude prices higher. It also puts the terror group in a strategic position to follow through <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-tells-houthis-close-red-sea-gateway-if-us-hits-power-network-sources-say-2026-07-16/">on a threat</a> made by Iran to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline was forced to shut down last week following a drone attack launched from Iraq, according to Saudi and Iraqi officials. The pipeline, which can transport up to 7 million barrels of crude per day from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, has provided the kingdom a way to bypass the Strait of Hormuz since Iran threatened commercial shipping at the start of the Iran war in February.
Satellite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/14/saudi-pipeline-drone-attack-houthis-global-oil-supply-prices">images show</a> extensive damage to a pumping station. The pipeline is expected to remain out of service for weeks, according to the Associated Press. 
<div id="attachment_1178063" style="width: 898px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1178063" class="size-large wp-image-1178063" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2294601634-888x576.jpg" alt="" width="888" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2294601634-888x576.jpg 888w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2294601634-300x195.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2294601634-768x498.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2294601634.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 888px) 100vw, 888px" />A closer view of fire-damaged structures and blackened ground at the East-West pipeline pumping station in Saudi Arabia following the September 11, 2026 drone attack and resulting fires. (Satellite image 2026 Vantor/Getty Images)</div>
Brent crude prices climbed to roughly $109 per barrel Monday following the attack.
The Houthis have also targeted Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in and around the Red Sea for more than a month. 
The group has also made clear that its campaign against Saudi Arabia is not over. Nasr al-Din Amer, head of the Houthi-run Saba news agency, told CNN that the Houthis would continue “pressuring” Saudi Arabia until Riyadh ends what the group describes as a “siege” of northern Yemen.
The Houthis and Saudi Arabia have been in conflict for more than a decade since the Iran-backed group seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and drove the internationally recognized government into exile. Saudi Arabia launched a military intervention the following year to push the Houthis back.
The group, known for its <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-834594">bizarre propaganda</a> music videos, emerged from one of the world’s poorest countries, where the adult literacy rate is just 54% in the latest <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?locations=YE">World Bank data available</a>. Yet over the years, the Houthis have built a capable arsenal with Iranian support, including ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, and other weapons. The group has used them to attack commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as targets in Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The conflict killed tens of thousands of people and contributed to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises before a 2022 truce significantly reduced the fighting. The Houthis declared the ceasefire over in July, amid the wider regional conflict.
Saudi Arabia has avoided launching a major military response to the latest Houthi advances and instead reportedly asked the Trump administration for assistance. President Trump has declined to commit U.S. forces directly to the fighting.
On Saturday, Trump said the Houthis had contacted his administration and indicated that they did not want the United States to become directly involved.
<div id="attachment_1178067" style="width: 701px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1178067" class="size-large wp-image-1178067" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2270487506-691x576.jpg" alt="" width="691" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2270487506-691x576.jpg 691w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2270487506-300x250.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2270487506-768x640.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2270487506-1536x1280.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2270487506.jpg 1897w" sizes=" (max-width: 691px) 100vw, 691px" />Map of East-West Pipeline or Petroline in Saudi Arabia, from Abqaiq across Arabian Peninsula to Yanbu at Red Sea, and Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, from Habshan, in the UAE to Fujairah. (Getty Images)</div>
“They would much prefer not having us involved,” Trump said. “They’re letting most ships go through. There’s just one country that they’re not too happy with, and we’ll get that straightened out.”
Instead, the United States sent more than 100 military personnel to Saudi Arabia to provide intelligence and targeting assistance for its campaign against the Houthis, <a href="https://archive.is/iGwXO#selection-4017.13-4020.0">CNN reported</a>.
The Houthis previously came under direct U.S. attack in March 2025 when Trump ordered a major bombing campaign against Houthi targets after the group resumed attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea. 
U.S. Central Command said the campaign, dubbed Operation Rough Rider, struck more than 800 targets by late April, including Houthi leadership, command-and-control facilities, and weapons storage sites. After 52 days of U.S. strikes, Trump announced a ceasefire with the Houthis on May 6, 2025.
The Yemeni military has also attempted to halt the Houthi advance by reportedly launching airstrikes against Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab, and elsewhere in Taiz province on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. The Houthis reported attacks by Saudi-backed forces in Taiz as well as artillery fire in Saada, a Houthi stronghold near the Saudi border.
The National Resistance, a government-allied force that previously controlled parts of Yemen’s western coast, said more than 500 government fighters had been killed along the coast during the past four weeks. The group also claimed that more than 1,000 Houthis had been killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces.
Nearly 94,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since the beginning of September, according to the <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/iom-spokesperson-numbers-displaced-yemen-reaches-nearly-94000">United Nations</a>.

YEMEN-CONFLICT

How Iran-Backed Terrorists Got Within 20 Miles Of A Key U.S. Base

camp lemonnier

A woman who lost her husband in the 9/11 terrorist attacks delivered a blistering criticism of recent presidential administrations and their perceived failure to hold Saudi Arabia responsible for its alleged role in the attacks on American soil.
At the 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero Friday morning, Terry Strada, who went up to the podium to read her husband&#8217;s name, spent nearly two minutes in front of the crowd, ripping American leaders, whom she accused of protecting &#8220;the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.&#8221;
Fifteen of the 19 radical Islamic terrorists who hijacked planes on September 11, 2001, were Saudis, and an ongoing lawsuit accuses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of being complicit in the attacks.
&#8220;My husband, Tom Strada, you are missed more with each year that passes. But how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder,&#8221; Strada said as many people in the audience responded with applause. &#8220;Yes, we finally made it into a court and have proved that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support radical Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones.&#8221;
&#8220;But for 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,&#8221; she added.
&#8220;They withheld evidence. They vetoed JASTA,&#8221; Strada continued, referring to former President Barack Obama&#8217;s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which was overridden by Congress. JASTA specifically focused on Saudi Arabia and allowed families of 9/11 victims to seek legal recourse against the Middle Eastern country.
&#8220;They broke promises, both public and private,&#8221; Strada said. &#8220;It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have been suffering through.&#8221;
Strada then turned her attention to Vice President JD Vance, who was among those in attendance at the Ground Zero ceremony.
&#8220;Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back. Stand with the families, stand with the survivors, stand with Americans. As my husband Tom would have said, that is always the right thing to do.&#8221;
Tom Strada was killed after American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. His wife Terry is now the national chair of 9/11 Families United, which for years has sought to hold Saudi Arabia liable for the 9/11 attacks.
A federal appeals panel is set to hear more arguments next month on the alleged Saudi government connection to the 9/11 terror attacks. Next month, the court will focus on Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who has ties to the 9/11 hijackers and was on the payroll of Saudi intelligence, according to a 2017 FBI memo, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/11/us-news/sept-11-widow-blasts-saudis-on-25th-anniversary-of-attacks-no-justice/">reported</a>.
The 9/11 Families United scored a major legal win last year when a federal judge rejected Saudi Arabia&#8217;s attempt to dismiss the plaintiffs&#8217; claims. The federal judge determined that there was enough evidence to claim that the kingdom employed two people to help the 9/11 hijackers, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/09/11/911-widow-saudi-arabia-trump">Axios</a>.
The Saudi government has denied any involvement in the planning or coordination of the terror attacks that killed 2,977 people in New York City, Arlington, Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Trump has maintained a close relationship with Saudi Arabia, securing major economic and defense deals with the kingdom. Earlier this year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Trump at the White House and was asked by a reporter about the accusations leveled against his country by the 9/11 families.
&#8220;We have to focus on reality, reality based in CIA documents and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose &#8230; to destroy the American-Saudi relation[ship],&#8221; bin Salman said.

The 25th Anniversary Of The September 11th Attacks

9/11 Widow Goes Off Script, Calls Out 25 Years Of ‘Betrayal’ At Ground Zero

ground zero

jd vance

september 11 attacks

terry strada

Laura Ingraham says the American people are done with war. They won&#8217;t fight; won&#8217;t fund it; won&#8217;t support it, and that this new isolationism is going to win.
It might win. But that kind of thinking is dramatically wrong. It&#8217;s the kind of wrong that destroys countries and that could destroy America.
I understand why people feel the way they do. Gas prices are high. Families are stretched thin. Folks are looking at the grocery bill and their rent and thinking, “Why on earth are we spending blood and treasure halfway around the world and not even getting to the endpoint?”
But this is why it&#8217;s imperative that America wins and wins quickly.
There are three options. Number one: We win. We do what we have to do in order to achieve our goals. Number two: We fight antiseptically, and the war goes on pretty much forever. Number three: We go full isolationist and pacifist and then continue to fight forever wars forever, because that&#8217;s what will happen.
The choice is right there in front of us, which means there&#8217;s really only one choice: Victory.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2470?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Ingraham wrote on X, “The American people are done with war. They will not support war. They will not voluntarily pay for war. They will not make sacrifices to support war. They will not encourage their kids and grandkids to fight in wars. They won&#8217;t vote for politicians who promise war, and they will punish politicians who get them into war. It&#8217;s not Trump who&#8217;s making America more isolationist. It&#8217;s the American people. And they are going to win this fight.”
If that is how the American people are now operating, it&#8217;s a foolish and dangerous sentiment. The idea that we&#8217;ll never fund; we&#8217;ll never fight; we&#8217;ll never allow anyone to declare war; we&#8217;ll never get into a war? You may as well say that you will never allow the sun to rise, because the reality is that the world will come to you.
Let’s look into the sentiment that&#8217;s feeding this foolish point of view.
The American people are looking at the situation in the Middle East, and they don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going on. It is confusing because it’s not clear whether the Strait of Hormuz is open.
President Trump said, “If you combine us and Venezuela, we have about 62% of the world&#8217;s oil market. So we don&#8217;t need Straits, we don&#8217;t need anything, we don&#8217;t need the Hormuz Strait. But we do it because we have to do it because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
With the president saying that we shouldn&#8217;t care about the Strait, Americans are saying, “So why should we care about what we are doing there? Just hit the nuclear facilities and go home.”
It&#8217;s all discombobulated; it doesn&#8217;t feel like it moves us toward victory.
And then things get more complicated.
In reality, Iran is in very serious trouble. Iran&#8217;s economy is flat on its back. There are rifts inside the Iranian governing structure. Iran has no capacity to ship its oil out. They have no capacity to shoot down things that are flying over their country. That’s why they&#8217;ve been activating their friends, the Houthis.
I understand why people are confused and upset. It feels like things are stalemated, and even that they&#8217;re getting broader and more difficult.
Why? Because what the American people want is victory. There&#8217;s this bizarre notion in foreign policy that the American people are deeply worried about the immediate cost of war to the enemy, that the American people can&#8217;t handle the ugliness of war for even a day, and that every conflict has to be totally antiseptic.
I&#8217;m not even talking about the American willingness to undergo casualties. No one in America wants American casualties. It&#8217;s a tragedy and a horror. We do understand that war does come along with casualties, and we are willing to undergo those casualties in pursuit of an end and a victory for America.
But as far as the idea that America can&#8217;t hit Kharg Island because the Iranian people would then be deprived of oil resources, the American people are not particularly concerned about that. We are far more concerned with why we&#8217;re there and not winning.
You have to balance these options. We would like to be antiseptic and to win. But victory wins over antiseptic every time. If antiseptic wins over victory, then you will get neither victory nor antiseptic.
That is how this works. In reality, always and forever, there are only three real possibilities, and those possibilities stack up to only one choice. The first possibility is you go fast and you go hard and we win. That means we bomb their nuclear facilities into dust. We bomb Kharg Island, we bomb South Pars. We put the regime on its last legs. We destroy their fields and their capacity for a final result. We force open the Strait.
The president wanted to do this, remember? He tried to do this for one day with Project Freedom in the Strait. It was one day. One day. And then the Saudis said no.
We have to tell them to shove it; we&#8217;re going to do it anyway. Allies like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia should help us militarily. They should provide us with soldiers for use on the north shore of Hormuz and on Qeshm Island and Kharg Island. It may be uglier, and it may be costlier, but it&#8217;s faster, and we win.
War is bad. It is hell. It is awful. It always has been, and it always will be. War is the infliction of pain on the enemy to the point where they no longer want to undergo that pain while you are able to withstand pain. That&#8217;s what war is. It is a test of willpower and a test of pain tolerance.
But war is also and forever a necessary tool in the American arsenal. It always has been. It always will be. So you ought to win, and you have to win as fast as possible.
As Marco Rubio said at an Asian summit in Manila: 
<blockquote>I saw Araghchi, the [Iranian] foreign minister, the other day say something about their policy is &#8220;an eye for an eye.&#8221; The president’s policy is &#8220;a head for an eye.&#8221; I mean, honestly, that’s what it’s gonna be. They will pay a very heavy price for the things they’re doing. They’re already paying a very heavy price. You guys don’t know it because you don’t cover it; you’re not in Iran; you’re not in the street; they don’t have a free media. But they’re going to continue to pay a very heavy price; their industrial base has been decimated; their defense industrial base has been decimated. They’re losing launchers; they’re losing radars every single night.</blockquote>
This is correct. It&#8217;s not an eye for an eye. It&#8217;s a head for an eye.
That&#8217;s option one: Actual victory.
Option two: Go antiseptic. This is the strategy of gradual escalation. We tried it in Vietnam. We have to be as clean as possible; it’s the strategy of an eye for an eye or tit for tat, or you hit a ship, and we hit a bridge.
But here’s the thing about the Iranians: they are perfectly willing to put out their own eye if it means you lose an eye.
An Iranian analyst close to the Iranian regime threatened, “It&#8217;s time to evacuate Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and probably Oman.”  Trump is saying “an eye for an eye,” and the Iranians are saying “an eye for everything.”
Why is Iran doing that? Iran doesn&#8217;t have the military capacity to do all of that. We do. Why is he making that threat? Because he knows that threat works. It turns out that antiseptic and proportional in the statistical sense is very, very bad and foolish foreign policy. What you&#8217;re relegated to if you end up with this sort of tit-for-tat strategy is hoping they eventually collapse from within.
I never thought the administration would end up with this option, because historically, President Trump didn’t like this. He didn&#8217;t like forever wars; he liked the big spectacular strike that was over quickly, like the attack on Venezuela’s Maduro, or “Let&#8217;s kill Qasem Soleimani and then he&#8217;s dead,” or “Let&#8217;s hit the nuclear facilities in Iran, and then let&#8217;s leave,” as he did with Operation Midnight Hammer.
It seems that the president originally wanted to go very hard, but he was talked out of it by Turkey and Saudi Arabia and some of his own advisers, and then he got stuck in this tit-for-tat, gradual escalation, gradual de-escalation routine. And now we&#8217;re stuck here.
The quickest path to a forever war is to eschew using overwhelming force.
Option three: Give up on war. Give up on military optionality. Give up global power, recede within your own borders.
Isolationist pacifism has been tried before. It is legitimately one of the great failures in all of world history.
After World War I, when the Allies had imposed a peace on Germany, the Allies then refused to actually hold Germany to that peace. You can make the case that the Treaty of Versailles was too strenuous in its desire for reparations from the Germans; there’s a solid historical case for that.
But — there is no question that if France had stood up to Germany, if the Brits had stood up to Germany, if America had stood up to Germany in the interwar period, World War II would never have happened. Instead, Great Britain, France, and the United States all attempted to pursue a pacifist and isolationist strategy, and this led to the worst and most costly war in all of human history.
You don&#8217;t have to speculate that this is what they were trying to do. They openly said they were trying to do this. In 1928, the United States Secretary of State and the French foreign minister designed the so-called Kellogg-Briand pact. It outlawed war as an instrument of policy. The signatories to that agreement that outlawed war were the U.S., France, the U.K., along with Germany, Italy, and Japan.
You may notice that it didn&#8217;t work out well.
This is the theme of Churchill&#8217;s &#8220;The Gathering Storm,&#8221; the first volume of his World War II history. In 1933, students at Oxford University famously voted in favor of the so-called “King and Country” resolution. That resolution said that the students would “under no circumstances fight for king and country.”
That sounds exactly like what Laura Ingraham is saying.
Over the course of the 1930s, the United States slashed our military to the bone. By the time World War II broke out, the United States had the 19th largest military on planet Earth. We were stacked behind Portugal.
One of the reasons that World War II took so long and killed so many people is that once the United States got involved after December 7, 1941, it took us fully three years to rearm and then four years to win. If we had had that weaponry at the ready, would Pearl Harbor ever have happened?
Isolationism plus pacifism is a deadly combination because it turns out the world is a deadly place. Our enemies are not going to subscribe to those notions.
There&#8217;s also this very ahistorical notion that American foreign policy was once truly isolationist and pacifist. That’s nonsense. If you look at the history of America&#8217;s wars, America has been involved in conflicts all over the globe almost since its founding. We were fighting wars with the Barbary pirates under Thomas Jefferson.
Our national interests have always extended beyond pure physical threat. I know that some people think, “Unless we get physically hit, we cannot get involved in conflict.”
That is stupid. We have interests that require us to defend them. And sometimes — with luck as rarely as possible — that requires military force.
But to pretend otherwise is to be stupid.
The idea that America is supposed to lose or surrender to a third-rate regime that is shooting drones at ships opens the door to actual, significantly larger threats. Money will pour into Iran from China and Russia. They&#8217;ll rearm stronger than they ever were. China and Russia themselves will flex their muscle if you choose this path.
Americans are not pacifists. We&#8217;re not isolationists. We don&#8217;t like to lose. We like to win.
So let’s go do it.

blind spot

America’s Biggest Blind Spot Is About To Be Tested

Ben Shapiro

forever war

iran war

Isolationists

laura ingraham

marco rubio

President Trump

strait of hormuz

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

WWII

President Donald Trump made it crystal clear to Saudi Arabia on Thursday: if the kingdom wants a blockbuster <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-set-to-strike-major-nuclear-agreement-with-middle-east-power">U.S. civilian nuclear package</a>, it has to put its signature on the historic Abraham Accords.
Trump’s ultimatum came after a groundbreaking 30-year Section 123 Agreement signed between U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. The deal lays out a blueprint for American energy giants, such as Westinghouse, to go to the Middle East and export reactors, high-tech engineering, and scientific expertise to help Riyadh move away from oil so it can power its AI data center explosion.
“The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116969149016233329">Truth Social</a>.
Under the proposal, Washington and Riyadh would launch a two-year joint study evaluating a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia. American corporate giants would keep standard U.S. proprietary technology under direct American control, rather than handing over control to the Saudi government.
Security will be tight. Instead of relying solely on standard IAEA snap inspections, the deal sets up a bilateral safeguard system, putting American inspection teams side-by-side with international monitors.
For the White House, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Proponents argue that if the United States doesn&#8217;t step up to build Saudi Arabia’s nuclear backbone, Beijing or Moscow will. The deal promises to dump billions into the U.S. economy and create thousands of blue-collar energy jobs at home.
The historic Abraham Accords originally flipped the script on Middle East diplomacy during Trump’s first term. His administration brokered game-changing normalization deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords triggered a multi-billion-dollar boom in trade, defense sharing, and direct flights across the region.
If Trump can connect Saudi Arabia to the Abraham Accords, it would be a massive win.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-set-to-strike-major-nuclear-agreement-with-middle-east-power">Related: Trump Set To Strike Major Nuclear Agreement With Middle East Power</a>

President Trump Meets With The Crown Prince And Prime Minister Of Saudi Arabia At The White House

Trump Gives Saudi Arabia Ultimatum Before He Signs Major Nuclear Deal

abraham accords

donald trump

middle east

Nuclear

Reuters reported Wednesday that U.S. intelligence analysts are looking into whether Russia helped Iran strike CIA facilities in the Gulf by providing targeting intelligence or advanced drone technology.
The report, which cited four people familiar with the matter, said analysts have not reached definitive conclusions. But the precision of the strikes and Russia&#8217;s longstanding military support for Iran are among the factors under review. 
The investigation into Moscow&#8217;s possible role in the attacks on CIA sites has not previously been reported.
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-strikes-cia-facilities-prompt-questions-about-possible-russian-role-2026-07-22/?utm_source=braze&amp;utm_medium=notifications&amp;utm_campaign=2025_engagement">Reuters</a> has previously reported that Russia provided Iran with targeting assistance and other military support for attacks on U.S. interests in the Gulf. 
At least two CIA facilities were hit in March, including the CIA station housed inside the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and another facility in eastern Iraq. Some sources said additional sites were also hit but did not provide further details. 
One internal memo from a Western intelligence agency, according to a regional official familiar with it, concluded that Russia likely played a role in targeting regional CIA facilities.
Two Western officials in the Gulf briefed on intelligence reports said analysts believe the Saudi attack involved two Russian-enhanced versions of Iran&#8217;s Shahed drones. According to those officials, the first drone breached a vulnerable section of the embassy&#8217;s exterior, allowing the second to fly through the opening before detonating. No deaths or injuries were reported.
While Russia has long supported Iran militarily, helping Tehran target sensitive CIA facilities would mark a significant escalation in Moscow&#8217;s efforts to disrupt U.S. operations amid the ongoing Iran war.
Concerns about Russian assistance intensified after recent strikes on a U.S. military base in Jordan, where Iranian ballistic missiles hit army barracks and killed two soldiers.
Russia has helped Iran improve the range and accuracy of its Shahed drones by supplying the Kometa-M satellite navigation system, which is more resistant to jamming than Iran&#8217;s domestic version. The Wall Street Journal first <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-secretly-sharing-location-of-u-s-targets-with-iran-u-s-officials-say-127d4f1a">reported</a> this assistance in March; the Kremlin called the report &#8220;<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-03-18/kremlin-says-wsj-report-on-russia-sharing-drone-technology-with-iran-is-fake-news">fake news</a>.&#8221;
U.S. analysts have examined whether Iran relied on Russian targeting intelligence during the embassy attack. Some officials noted that few nations besides Russia would have both the capability and interest in providing such sensitive information against the U.S.
Still, some sources cautioned that Iran might have been targeting the broader U.S. Embassy and struck the CIA station by chance.
Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA station chief and undercover operations officer, said Russian assistance in targeting CIA facilities would be consistent with Moscow&#8217;s strategic partnership with Iran. 
&#8220;They share an interest in trying to reduce or eliminate U.S. influence altogether in their self-designated spheres of influence,&#8221; he said.
The White House referred questions to the CIA, which declined comment. Iran&#8217;s mission to the United Nations, Russia&#8217;s Defense Ministry, and the Saudi government did not respond to Reuters&#8217; requests for comment.
CIA facilities overseas typically include stations in embassies, along with offices, safe houses, logistics hubs, and sites for surveillance or other operations. Their locations remain closely guarded.
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Mideast Iraq

U.S. Investigates Russia’s Possible Role In CIA Attacks

Drones

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Reuters

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On Tuesday, President Trump announced that America has achieved a form of regime change in Iran. 
To a certain extent, that is correct. President Trump has already announced that the war has effectively been won. From an American perspective, he&#8217;s right; the war has been won —on the military level. Iran has done minimal damage by any sort of standard to American forces and interests.
Meanwhile, Iran itself has been pummeled to dust. The ballistic missile program has basically been destroyed. Their nuclear facilities have been pounded again. Their drone program has been blown up. The only thing Iran can do at this point is harass people.
They can harass their neighbors with occasional missile and drone strikes. They can disrupt some shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
We&#8217;re not done yet, as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has made clear, saying:
<blockquote>And that&#8217;s why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs. You have a choice. As we loiter over the top of Tehran, as the president talked about, about your future, the president has made it clear that you will not have a nuclear weapon. The War Department agrees. Our job is to ensure that. 
And so we&#8217;re keeping our hand on that throttle as long as it&#8217;s hard as is necessary to ensure the interests of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield. This is not Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not a president who&#8217;s interested in vague end states. He&#8217;s been very clear with us about what we need to accomplish, creating the conditions for them never to have a nuclear capability. And that&#8217;s exactly what we&#8217;re doing in historic fashion.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2395-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
What would victory look like for the United States? There are two types of victory here: political victory and actual victory.
We may already have an actual victory. Let&#8217;s say that Iran ends up falling in the next couple of years; that victory will belong to President Trump, because we will have weakened all of the foundations upon which the Iranian regime stands, in the same way that the fall of the Soviet Union belonged to President Reagan.
It won&#8217;t be a political victory because you need an exclamation point for a political victory, some way to say we didn&#8217;t just win; Iran also lost.
Where is Iran right now? Did they totally lose? On the one hand, we can make the argument that simply to survive would be the regime winning, that survival amounts to not losing. 
 
Israel and America&#8217;s other regional allies would have to continue to exercise overwatch of the regime to ensure they don&#8217;t renew their missile, drone, and nuclear programs.
But we do have to ask: Is not losing really a victory for Iran? It might be for the moment, but not for long, because Iran would remain isolated, throttled, and devoid of basic resources. Remember, before this war, there were already millions of people in the streets protesting the regime; the rial was running at 0.00001 to a dollar, and they had so little water that they were moving millions of people out of Tehran. They were actually evacuating their own capital.
Can this regime continue to limp along on that basis for many more years?
The question becomes whether or not President Trump can force the Iranians into a deal that achieves political victory, a good end state that he can go home and brag about. Despite members of the media and Democratic politicians saying they don&#8217;t actually believe that President Trump has been talking to Iran, it has now been confirmed that there are negotiations between the two countries indirectly.
What kind of concessions are they actually making? The devil remains in the details. President Trump said yesterday that Iran has agreed we will never have a nuclear weapon. But if they had to retain a nuclear program that could easily be turned toward weapons development, that&#8217;s not good enough. Will they retain enriched uranium? We&#8217;ll have to find out. President Trump has made clear that, in his view, they must never have a nuclear weapon.
President Trump has apparently released a list of demands: All existing nuclear capabilities will be dismantled — which I assume means all of their nuclear plans — a commitment that Iran will never strive to obtain nuclear weapons, which would have to be enforceable; no material will ever be enriched on Iranian soil; all enriched material would be handed it over to the IAEA in a short-term timetable to be defined between the parties; Natanz and Fordo would be decommissioned and also destroyed. The IAEA would have full access to all information within Iran&#8217;s borders. Iran would completely abandon its terror proxy network. Iran would stop financing and arming proxies in the region. The Strait of Hormuz would remain open, would be a free maritime zone; no one would block it.
As for the missile program, according to the talking points put out by the administration, there would be a decision at a later period, but they would have to limit the quantity and the range, and future use of missiles would have to be for self-defense purposes only.
In return for all of that, theoretically, Iran would have sanctions lifted and receive assistance in developing a civilian nuclear program in Bushehr. Basically, we would build them low-level nuclear programs for energy, and the threat of snapback sanctions would be removed.
I have a question: Does it sound like Iran is ready to do any of that? I have some very, very serious doubts.
At the same time, President Trump does not want to leave the rest of the region subject to the whims of the mullahs. President Trump&#8217;s strongest support for continued action, at this point, is coming from the Saudis, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/us/politics/saudi-prince-iran-trump.html">The New York Times</a>:
<blockquote>In recent days, Mr. Trump has given more serious consideration to a military operation to seize Kharg Island, the hub of Iran&#8217;s oil infrastructure. Such an operation with airborne armed forces or an amphibious assault by Marines would be immensely dangerous. But Prince Mohammed has advocated ground operations in his conversations with Mr. Trump, according to people briefed by American officials.</blockquote>
I actually agree with Mohammed bin Salman&#8217;s assessment here. If America were to grab control of Kharg Island, the actual capacity of Iran to survive — even midterm — drops dramatically.
What comes next? The answer, as it has always been, is in the hands of the Iranian government. Remember, Iran could have, at any time for 50 years, reintegrated into the world economy by ending its global ambitions, its support for terrorism, and its nuclear program. They have not done that.
Maybe they&#8217;re willing to moderate now. I doubt it, but there are still plenty of levers left for the United States to pull. President Trump has already shown a high willingness to do just that.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-us-israel-news-updates-2026?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfGcgDfKBEWhIxvwC5oIzLdgAB61kcrWruScWSEPgDmDl58AWAUM0ls&amp;gaa_sig=ussC2AZQMvBhhzrltb90YvkjDqf3AIQnMr5GiMux8VVsd05MyjHAdj-cQm7pMbigC61x2AT6u1daMqiTYdUcww%3D%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69c42828&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com">reported</a> yesterday:
<blockquote>The Pentagon is planning to deploy about 3000 soldiers from the Army&#8217;s elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East to support operations against Iran, according to two U.S. officials, with a written order expected in the coming hours. Officials cautioned that a decision for boots on the ground in Iran has not been made, but deploying the 82nd opens the door to President Trump for several strategic options.</blockquote>
Special operations, limited in duration; this is not the kind of “quagmire boots on the ground” stuff people were talking about. We&#8217;re not talking about 100,000 troops occupying Iran indefinitely. At most, we are talking about a ground operation to take away territory used to target the Strait of Hormuz, to take away the island.
That&#8217;s probably what we are talking about here.

US-POLITICS-SECURITY-TRUMP-MULLIN

What Does Victory Over Iran Look Like?

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

pete hegseth

trump administration

CNN&#8217;s Kaitlan Collins may often find herself at odds with President Donald Trump, but during a recent interview, she conceded that it was White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who stepped in to defend her rights as a journalist.
Collins explained the situation to &#8220;Absolutely Not&#8221; podcast host Heather McMahan, which unfolded when Collins traveled with the president to Saudi Arabia. She explained that the Saudi Royal Guard attempted to bar her from attending an event with Trump, and Leavitt lobbied for her to be allowed in the room.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Says Karoline Leavitt Defended Her Free Press Rights
“The Saudi Royal Guard freaked out because I dared to ask a question … and said, you can&#8217;t come into the next event … Karoline, to her credit said, no Kaitlan&#8217;s coming in with the rest of the U.S.… <a href="https://t.co/uhB9al4GVX">pic.twitter.com/uhB9al4GVX</a>
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2021943212605165863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;When we were in Saudi Arabia, we were on a foreign trip with the president, and [Trump] came in with all the other leaders, including the Saudi Crown Prince,&#8221; Collins said, setting the scene for McMahan. &#8220;They famously do not like the media there, to put it lightly.&#8221;
&#8220;[I] shouted a question to President Trump, who had seen me when the U.S. press came in,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t answer, which is, I mean, that&#8217;s how it works: you shout questions, they either answer or they don&#8217;t, it&#8217;s their prerogative. And then the world leaders left the room.&#8221;
That, Collins said, was when things started to get sticky for her. The Saudi Royal Guard, unaccustomed to reporters being allowed to shout questions at their leaders, attempted to bar her from entering the room ahead of the next event.
&#8220;The Saudi Royal Guard kind of freaked out because I dared to ask a question, and they&#8217;re not used to that there because they don&#8217;t have a free press,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;And so they came up, and they said, &#8216;Okay, well, you can&#8217;t come into the next event,&#8217; which was like two minutes later.&#8221;
Collins said she attempted to explain &#8220;that&#8217;s not how this works,&#8221; but gained little ground with the Royal Guard.
&#8220;I could see them whispering and pointing about me,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Some of the younger White House press weren&#8217;t really sure what to do, and they went to Karoline. And, to her credit, she said, &#8216;No, Kaitlan&#8217;s coming in with the rest of the U.S. press&#8217; &#8230; which I do think is important, in that moment.&#8221;
Collins noted that similar incidents had happened on foreign trips before, such as when President Trump visited the DMZ and met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

President Trump And French President Macron Hold News Conference

Trump Foe Kaitlan Collins Recalls Time Karoline Leavitt Defended Her From Saudis

Regular CNN Trump Foil Admits Karoline Leavitt Defended Her Rights As Journalist

Freedom of the Press

Kaitlan Collins

karoline leavitt

media

politics

The first time I met Cory Pesaturo, he had just hijacked the stage at a wedding in Boston with an accordion strapped to his chest. Little did I know he would do the impossible: make me a fan of the accordion.
Cory is — and I’m not exaggerating — the world’s best accordion player. He’s won the accordion World Championship three times. He holds the Guinness World Record for playing the accordion for the longest continuous time. He brings his accordion with him <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DPY132wkTkt/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">everywhere</a>, and can play just about anything, including the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CknQsS8uqcW/?hl=en&amp;img_index=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accordion tracks</a> in the feature film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
Most recently, he took his talents to Saudi Arabia, which is now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-officially-designates-saudi-arabia-a-major-ally-of-united-states?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Officially+Designates+Saudi+Arabia+A+%E2%80%98Major%E2%80%99+Ally+Of+United+States" target="_blank" rel="noopener">officially</a> a “major ally” of the United States. The Saudi Arabia he presents is much different from the Saudi Arabia most Americans probably imagine. — Brent Scher
***
Earlier this month, I arrived in Saudi Arabia for my second visit to a country which has always seemed like a forbidden land to the West. I’d been invited again as a guest star to play accordion in the “Riyadh Season” concert series — this time with Egypt’s biggest singing sensation, Angham.
What struck me, on both trips, was how aggressively the Saudis are betting on capitalism.
Everywhere you go, the top Western brands are visible: Dunkin’ Donuts, Texas Roadhouse, Bath &amp; Body Works, Chuck E. Cheese, and yes, Randy’s Donuts, with the giant donut on the roof are there for you in Riyadh. There is even a Disney castle and theme park.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1007573" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/IMG_8813-595x576.jpg" alt="" width="595" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/IMG_8813-595x576.jpg 595w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/IMG_8813-300x290.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/IMG_8813-768x743.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/IMG_8813-1536x1487.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/IMG_8813.jpg 1964w" sizes=" (max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px" /></div>
On every corner there seem to be concerts, tourist attractions, and massive development projects. The music you hear playing through the speakers of high-end locations? Jazz, Lady Gaga, or Burt Bacharach. The style of filming for major concerts?  Straight out of CBS’s Grammys playbook.
Could a country truly hate America if this is what I was seeing?
When I first traveled to Saudi Arabia two years ago, I didn’t even tell my father. You can’t lie to an Italian mother, of course, but my father? If he had known I was flying to a country he associated with the worst terror attack in American history, he would have tied me to my bed. Many of my friends felt the same, judging by their reactions when I returned: “Saudi Arabia? Are you insane? Are you trying to get arrested or killed?”
But over the past decade, the Kingdom, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has charted a different course. One built on peace, prosperity, and a surprisingly familiar engine: Western-style capitalism.
It is true that in Saudi Arabia, you have no real rights against the state — no First Amendment protections, no guarantee of a fair trial, a mandatory dress code, and laws that make smoking pot or ordering a margarita about as plausible as Cardi B performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto on the accordion — a stunt I once pulled to win a national title.
Yet, regardless of this different universe of ideas from the United States, I wasn’t afraid.
The free market being unleashed in Saudi Arabia, even if still in a more state-run manner, is the greatest modern example of how a country thought to be an untrustworthy foe can turn into an important ally.
What struck me most, though, was that while I was in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim socialist won the mayor’s seat in the financial capital of the world, New York City. Three different Saudis during the trip (including a Syrian security worker at the venue who had fled Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s regime) asked me some version of the same question: “What on earth are you Americans doing electing Mamdani? He’s crazy.” This, again, from inside the very center of Islam. And even they aren’t at all sold on the politics that Zohran Mamdani represents.
My insight is anecdotal, but the friendships I’ve formed in Saudi Arabia reveal a people not so different from my own friends back home. They want peace. They want prosperity. They want their families to be happy. They want to travel. They want to have fun.
I asked them everything — about Israel, Islamic extremism, terrorism, drinking, drugs, dating, hating their boss, weekend plans, and which video games keep them up until 4:00 a.m.
Watching a group of young men in Riyadh blast pop music at 1:30 a.m. as they inched through a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, talking about girls and killing time, looked the same as you’d see in America. Different faiths, different cultures, same very human scene.
A handful of companies profit from global conflict. But 99.9% of businesses in a free-market economy — from Nike and Coca-Cola to Apple and Tesla — depend on global stability and rising disposable income. Peace is profitable.
In just a decade, Saudi Arabia has gone from a place many Americans fear to visit to a place I can’t recommend enough to go see. If that’s the result of “greedy capitalism,” then count me in.
Cory Pesaturo is a three-time World Champion accordionist and Guinness World Record holder who has performed on six continents and at the White House four times. In addition to giving five TEDx Talks, he is also active in the motorsports world, bringing his signature blend of innovation and artistry to audiences around the globe.
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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President Trump Makes First Middle East Trip Of His Second Term

Is Saudi Arabian Capitalism Bringing Peace To The Middle East?

capitalism

islam

israel

The legacy media went nuts on Tuesday because the President of the United States hosted the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), at the White House. 
They went nuts because back in 2018, there was a Washington Post journalist (we say journalist, but he really was more of an op-ed writer) named Jamal Khashoggi, who was linked to the Muslim-Brotherhood. Khashoggi was murdered in grisly fashion, apparently at the Saudi consulate in Turkey, according to intelligence estimates, on the orders of Mohammed bin Salman. 
The Biden administration decided to make this incident front and center in their campaign against Saudi Arabia in an attempt to create distance with the Saudi government in order to make overtures to the Iranian government. The Saudis and the Iranians are enemies, of course, because the Iranians wish to destroy the Saudis; that&#8217;s been true for a very long time. 
No one is making the case that Khashoggi should have been murdered by the Saudis. It also happens to be the case that the United States has relations with a wide variety of despotic regimes around the globe. Some are better for the American people. Some are worse for the American people. That&#8217;s just the way global politics works. 
The vast majority of places on planet Earth are not nice places, and terrible things happen there, and their leaders do terrible things. That is reality.
In fact, the realpolitik of the situation forced Joe Biden to go on bended knee to the Saudis to try and lower oil prices before the midterm elections in 2022. He started his administration by yelling at the Saudis about Jamal Khashoggi, and ended by bending the knee to the Saudis. 
The legacy media, however, have now decided to put tremendous focus on the Khashoggi murder. For some reason, they seem to have no such objections to Qatari ties to Hamas, or Qatari ties to Iran, which is responsible for the death and wounding of hundreds of Americans during the Iraq War. They seem to have no such complaints whenever President Erdogan visits from Turkey. Erdogan has participated in an extraordinary variety of human rights abuses.
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But when MBS shows up, then it&#8217;s time to ask him endlessly about Jamal Khashoggi.  
He can answer those questions. That&#8217;s his problem. But I will note the outsized interest in Jamal Khashoggi — as opposed to all the other various human rights violations that are happening around the region — has more to do with the legacy media’s geopolitics.  
They don&#8217;t like Saudi Arabia because they believe that there ought to be some sort of Obama-esque “balance of power” benefiting the Turks and Iran at the expense of the Saudis and the Israelis, presumably. 
That&#8217;s why they focus on Jamal Khashoggi. But if you look at the history of Jamal Khashoggi, the attempt to paint him as some sort of liberal reformer should be counterposed by being accurate about who Jamal Khashoggi was. 
As The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-819834">reported</a> on Khashoggi in a 2024 article: 
<blockquote>In the months leading up to his death, he was in the process of launching an organization later known as DAWN – Democracy for the Arab World Now, working in close collaboration with Palestinian-American Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and currently a board member of DAWN.
CAIR is a powerful U.S. Muslim advocacy group long known for its sympathies – and the denial of them – for Global Muslim Brotherhood (GMB) organizations in the West and in Muslim countries, including murky links to terrorists and terror funding that garnered public attention during the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trials and the conviction of CAIR affiliate Ghassan Elashi.</blockquote>
CAIR is deeply associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. They have close personal ties in the form of some of their leadership with people who are associated with Hamas. 
Khashoggi had a lot of those connections. You can say two things at once: He should not have been murdered, and he was not a liberal reformer in the Arab world. 
The media decided that they were going to ask the president about Mohammed bin Salman, and the proper answer from the president probably could have been something like, “The murder of Jamal Khashoggi was a tragic problem; also, we are in the business of geopolitics and pursuing America&#8217;s interests.” 
“He&#8217;s done a phenomenal job,” Trump stated. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you&#8217;re talking about, whether you like him or didn&#8217;t like him. Things happen, but he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don&#8217;t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
I think that was a more aggressive response than was warranted, because it is true that the Saudi royal government has engaged in some pretty extraordinary brutality.
But what Trump was saying — that MBS is a transformative leader in the region and that the United States needs to work with the people who are there, that we don&#8217;t get to choose the leadership class in all of these countries — is accurate.
The media attention with regard to all of this is quite purposeful. I do not think that it is a coincidence that they are virtue-signaling about Jamal Khashoggi rather than dealing with the reality of actual geopolitics.
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The Trump administration is designating Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally, strengthening economic and military ties between Washington and Riyadh, the president announced on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump announced the designation while Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the White House this week. Salman’s visit was received with many of the trappings of a state visit, though the event lacked the official status as Salman’s father is the actual head of the Saudi state.
“We&#8217;re taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, which is something that is very important to them,” <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1990948885271842899">said</a> Trump, before adding that Washington and Riyadh will enter into “a historic strategic defense agreement, which we just signed a little while ago.”
The announcement comes a day after the president said that he intends to allow Saudi Arabia to purchase F-35 stealth fighter planes from the United States.
“I am planning on doing that,” the president said. “They want to buy them. They’ve been a great ally.”
Salman offered promises to Trump, as well. Earlier on Tuesday, the crown prince said that Saudi Arabia <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1990838255311356094">intends</a> to increase its pledge to invest in the United States from $600 billion to “almost $1 trillion.” The investment would be nearly equal to the entirety of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11/18/world/trump-saudi-crown-prince-visit/trump-saudi-crown-prince?smid=url-share">The New York Times</a>.
Trump has moved to strengthen ties between Washington and Riyadh after the Biden administration’s effort to distance itself from the Saudis over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and other controversies. The Trump administration has prioritized the relationship with Riyadh, seeking its cooperation on issues such as gas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gas-prices-plummet-after-trump-rebuilds-ties-with-saudis-biden-snubbed">production</a> and the Abraham Accords.
The Saudis have signaled interest in joining the landmark foreign policy achievement of Trump’s tenure in office, the Abraham Accords, and normalizing relations with Israel. Riyadh has made it firmly understood, though, that it cannot normalize relations with Jerusalem until a pathway to a two-state solution with the Palestinian people is secure.
Saudi Arabia was one of a coalition of Arab states that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arab-states-line-up-behind-trumps-middle-east-peace-plan">backed</a> the Trump-brokered peace and ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The ceasefire agreement, if it holds, provides a pathway to end the war in Gaza and sets goals and parameters for a Palestinian state to eventually be built. Some experts have expressed concern over Washington’s growing ties with Riyadh, especially over the Trump administration’s decision to share highly-prized military assets such as the F-35 with the Saudis. Saudi Arabia has a defense agreement with China, and some experts have said that the Saudi government may share the technology with Beijing, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/17/trump-f-35-saudi-arabia-00654771">Politico</a>.

Mohammed bin Salman, Donald Trump

Trump Officially Designates Saudi Arabia A ‘Major’ Ally Of United States

Global Politics

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