Team USA is heading to the finals of the World Baseball Classic after a gritty win over a stacked Dominican Republic squad Sunday, and Paul Skenes couldn&#8217;t be happier leading the charge for his country in what he calls his &#8220;proudest&#8221; moment.
&#8220;The proudest I’ve ever been wearing a jersey is the USA jersey,&#8221; Skenes told <a href="https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/paul-skenes-talks-representing-usa-rare-interview-a-rod-its-different-level">Alex Rodriguez</a> in a sit-down interview ahead of the win over the DR. &#8220;You’re playing for a whole lot more. It’s great to play for a city, great to play for Pittsburgh in the regular season, but playing for your country, it’s a different level.&#8221;
Skenes is arguably a generational baseball talent, and while he shines on the diamond, he&#8217;s never shied away from his love of country.
The Pittsburgh Pirates ace once thought he would be flying fighter jets in the United States Air Force. The Cy Young winner, an award for the best MLB pitcher, was fresh out of high school when he took an oath to put his life on the line for our country. Even after Skenes was the overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, the MLB Rookie of the Year, and already a Cy Young award winner, he says taking that military oath is still &#8220;one of the highlights&#8221; of his life.
&#8220;I got the chills reciting that pledge just from how proud I am of this country,&#8221; Skenes penned in a letter published by <a href="https://www.theplayerstribune.com/paul-skenes-mlb-baseball-pittsburgh-pirates-wbc-usa">The Players&#8217; Tribune</a> ahead of the international baseball tournament. &#8220;I’m actually getting chills right now remembering back to that time. Because when you love something so much that you’re willing to lay down your life for it? It’s pretty meaningful stuff.&#8221;
He played the first two years of his college career at the Air Force Academy before transferring to LSU, where he won a National Championship. But during his time wearing both an Air Force serviceman uniform and baseball uniform, Skenes said he developed the skills that have made him into the pitcher and person he is today.
&#8220;I truly believe that regardless of what you’re doing, if you want to accomplish great things and be the best version of yourself, you’re going to have to work extremely hard — be disciplined, focused,&#8221; Skenes said. &#8220;I’m pretty sure that if I hadn’t put in that time at the Academy, I probably would&#8217;ve spent a lot more time in the minors than I did. So I’m incredibly grateful.&#8221;
His military background is why playing on Team USA is such an honor.
&#8220;I was never deployed myself, but I know how much pride those individuals take in wearing that uniform with your name on the right side of your chest and the U.S. Air Force or Army lettering on the left side … because that’s what you put over your heart,&#8221; Skenes said, adding that the players putting on the red, white, and blue aren&#8217;t doing it for the fame or money, but to simply represent their country.
&#8220;Our team, we’re not cadets or anything like that. (These hairstyles would never fly). But everyone on this team … we all understand that when you put on those colors, you’re not just playing baseball, you’re representing something deeper,&#8221; Skenes said. &#8220;When you’re watching us in this tournament, we hope you feel that too.&#8221;
Skenes set the all-time record for most strikeouts at seven by a Team USA pitcher at the World Baseball Classic in his first appearance in the tourney. In the biggest test of the WBC, Skenes went 4.1 innings and gave up one run, a first-inning homer to Junior Caminero. Skenes got two strikeouts in the win over the previously undefeated Team DR filled with MLB all-stars including Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Skenes, aside from his Players&#8217; Tribune letter, is a man of few words — still after Sunday&#8217;s win, Skenes explained the significance of the semi-final victory, calling the Team DR lineup &#8220;the toughest lineup&#8221; he&#8217;s ever faced.
Now Team USA awaits the winner of Monday&#8217;s semifinal between Venezuela and Italy before taking the field one last time on Tuesday in the WBC Final.
Team USA entered the tournament as the favorites to bring home the hardware, and entering the finals, Skenes&#8217; mindset isn&#8217;t focused on adding another trophy to his case — but winning to honor the real heroes of the United States.
&#8220;Our servicemen and women don’t have the luxury of losing, it’s not really an option for them,&#8221; Skenes said. &#8220;We’re not going to war, but [this] is what we do in America: we fight and we win. That’s our responsibility.&#8221;

Credit: Daily Wire Staff/Kelly Gavin/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty Images

‘The Proudest I’ve Ever Been Wearing A Jersey Is The USA Jersey’: Paul Skenes Is America’s Ace

Baseball

General

Sports

Team USA

U.S.

U.S. Military

World Baseball Classic

Critics of the War Department&#8217;s purchase of steak and lobster have largely fallen silent in the face of overwhelming evidence that this is standard practice for troops about to deploy. But while they were going, they were loud — and they were all Democrats.
 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted War Secretary Pete Hegseth on social media and accused him of wasting taxpayer money on luxuries such as “fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan king crabs, and a Steinway &amp; Sons grand piano.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS.
But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan… <a href="https://t.co/bdCHRWip3P">https://t.co/bdCHRWip3P</a>
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/2031497646892872011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
California Governor Gavin Newsom similarly circulated a <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2031441496801529864">viral post</a> accusing the Pentagon of blowing through $93 billion in spending during a single month.
By now, countless commentators have pointed out that there&#8217;s nothing unusual about serving steak and lobster to troops on the verge of deploying. Military leaders have <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/284118/food_connects_us_nutrition_community_important_for_service_members">frequently emphasized</a> that small comforts can have an outsized impact on morale, particularly for troops stationed overseas or serving in stressful environments. And, according to a recent analysis from government watchdog group <a href="https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/pentagon-should-focus-on-defense">Open the Books,</a> the War Department purchased much of its steak and lobster towards the end of the last fiscal year, when federal agencies often accelerate purchases before budgets reset.
Faced with all this evidence, critics have been eating crow. But perhaps they should also eat fungus.
In 2024, the Biden Defense Department awarded nearly $1.5 million to The Better Meat Company, a California firm that develops alternative protein products using fungal roots grown in bioreactors. The company’s process feeds water and nutrients to the fungus in a fermentation tank, producing a gray semi-solid material that can be processed into protein ingredients.
Pentagon officials at the time insisted the project was not intended to place synthetic meat substitutes in soldiers’ Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs). Instead, a Pentagon spokesman said the funding supported a facility for producing shelf-stable protein ingredients that could help sustain troops deployed around the world.
“Where was the outrage when the Biden administration wanted to force-feed franken-meat to America’s military heroes?&#8221; Jack Hubbard, executive director of the watchdog Center for the Environment and Welfare, said. &#8220;&#8216;Ick&#8217; factor aside, there are no long-term health studies on the effects of lab-grown meat. Our armed forces deserve better.”
Hegseth has made combating the Biden administration&#8217;s woke policies central to his mission at the helm of the War Department, saying that doing so boosts morale and makes the country safer.
“We became the woke department. But not anymore,” Hegseth said during a 2025 <a href="https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4318689/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-general-and-flag-officers-at-quantico-v/">address</a> to generals and flag officers. “This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics.”
Hegseth added that the effort included eliminating programs he said distracted from the military’s core mission.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions,” he said. “As I&#8217;ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh*t. I&#8217;ve made it my mission to uproot the obvious distractions that made us less capable and less lethal.”

US-IRAN-CONFLICT-DEFENSE

FLASHBACK: Dems Outraged Over Surf And Turf For Troops Were OK Feeding Them Fungus

Chuck Schumer

Department of War

Food

Pentagon

Politics

<div>
While the legacy media continues to hyperventilate over &#8220;escalation&#8221; in the U.S. war against Iran, General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stepped to the podium today to deliver a masterclass in American military might.
Caine didn&#8217;t just report progress on the 13th day of Operation Epic Fury. He announced that the U.S. military is currently rewriting the history of land-based warfare.
</div>
<div>
For those who thought the Iranian regime’s &#8220;formidable&#8221; defenses would pose a challenge, Caine had a different story: The Iranian Navy is already combat ineffective, over 6,000 targets have been turned to rubble, and the U.S. is now &#8220;persistently over the enemy.&#8221;
</div>
<div>
The headline of the day wasn&#8217;t just the sheer volume of strikes, but the way they are being delivered. Caine confirmed that for the first time in history, the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) has been used in combat.
</div>
<div>
In a display of multi-domain dominance that should make every adversary on the planet rethink their life choices, Caine detailed how Army and Marine artillerymen — sitting in armored cabs outside Iran’s borders — are reaching deep into enemy territory to sink ships. Yes, you read that correctly: American soldiers and Marines are using land-based rocket systems like HIMARS and ATACMS to sink multiple Iranian vessels, including a submarine.
</div>
<div>
“In just the first 13 days of this operation, our artillery forces have made history,” he declared. “They fired the first precision strike missiles ever used in combat, reaching deep into enemy territory. They&#8217;ve used Army ATACMS to sink multiple ships, including a submarine, and they&#8217;ve done all of this with the precision and determination that comes from relentless training and trust in each other.”
</div>
<div>
Caine recounted a conversation with a 20-year-old soldier from the 3rd Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment who fired those historic rounds. When the General asked what it felt like to ignite a rocket motor 10 feet behind his head to do the nation&#8217;s work, the young soldier’s response was pure American grit:
</div>
<div>
&#8220;It’s awesome.&#8221;
</div>
<div>
No drama. No hesitation. Just flawless execution. When asked what the Pentagon could provide them, the answer wasn&#8217;t &#8220;de-escalation&#8221; or &#8220;diplomatic off-ramps.&#8221; It was two words: &#8220;More rounds.&#8221;
</div>
<div>
The strategic results of this &#8220;awesome&#8221; precision are staggering. Caine noted that in less than two weeks, the U.S. has rendered the Iranian Navy a memory. This includes the total destruction of their Soleimani-class warships, the regime’s prized vessels armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft weapons.
</div>
<div>
The focus has now shifted to the &#8220;mine-laying enterprise.&#8221; Caine made it clear that while Iran remains the belligerent holding the Straits of Hormuz hostage, the U.S. is systematically deleting its naval bases, depots, and factories. The goal is simple: ensure they can never rebuild the tools of terror.
</div>
<div>
The briefing was not without its solemn moments. Caine addressed the tragic loss of a KC-135 refueling aircraft and the ongoing recovery mission for its crew. He also noted injuries to sailors following a fire on the USS Gerald R. Ford.
</div>
<div>
&#8220;Our service members make an incredible sacrifice,&#8221; Caine said, reminding the room that the &#8220;knock on the door&#8221; is the ultimate price of the security the rest of the country enjoys.
</div>
<div>
If the Iranian regime was hoping for a reprieve, Caine’s closing remarks extinguished it. He labeled today as the &#8220;heaviest day of kinetic fires&#8221; in the history of the operation. With strike packages launching every hour and the Joint Staff working 24/7 to deliver options to President Trump, the message is clear: The U.S. is not just winning; it is conducting a clinical, historic dismantling of a radical regime.
</div>
<div>
As Caine put it, the American Joint Force carries their responsibility with &#8220;grit, professionalism, and tenacity.&#8221;
And they aren&#8217;t stopping until the job is done.
</div>

US-IRAN-ISRAEL-WAR

‘Razin’ Caine Delivers Masterclass In American Military Might As U.S. Shreds Iranian Navy

Caine’s Masterclass: How American Artillery Is Rewriting History, Shredding The Iranian Navy

Dan Caine

Iran

Missiles

Headlines today claim the war in Iran is a catastrophe.
We awakened to some bad but true stories: Oil tankers on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, leading to large-scale oil disruptions and a spike in the price of Brent Crude oil. Rumors of impending Iranian drone attacks in California. And then, the Iranian schoolgirls who were killed in a botched missile attack.
We&#8217;re not going to sugarcoat what&#8217;s going on because war is ugly.
But what&#8217;s happening right now is that Iran is fighting back. The regime is on its last legs, and it knows it. Even if it survives the current conflict, the question is, for how long? Because if they&#8217;re heavily damaged, and if it turns out they can&#8217;t defend against insurgents in their streets or against air flights, air sorties from opposing forces, how long does the regime last?
What we&#8217;re watching right now are the dying throes of a poisonous snake.
But that doesn&#8217;t mean the snake can&#8217;t do serious damage before it goes. This is typically what the endgame of a war looks like. The enemy lashes out with all of its final strength, pulling out every stop, pulling every lever. And then, unless we lose our willpower, they lose.
As Japan collapsed at the end of World War II, American casualties went up, not down. The Battle of Okinawa — fought on territory controlled by Japan since 1879, populated heavily with Japanese citizens and entirely with Japanese subjects — was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War; 12,000 Americans ended up dead, between 36,000 and 49,000 Americans were wounded, alongside some 110,000 Japanese military killed and another 100,000 to 150,000 Japanese civilians, many of whom committed suicide.
That battle ended June 22, 1945, and within seven weeks the war was over.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2386-can-iran-hit-the-us"><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>
This sort of activity isn&#8217;t uncommon, as America&#8217;s enemies realize that they are in their final hours.
The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler&#8217;s final attempt to stave off defeat. It was bloody. It was terrible. And Hitler lost.
At the end of the Gulf War, actually, even after a cease-fire had been declared, the Iraqi Hammurabi Republican Guard Division attacked the U.S. 24th Infantry Division. That was a large-scale mistake, and the U.S. ended up destroying nearly 200 tanks and erasing the Hammurabi Division entirely. But that was sort of the last gasp.
It&#8217;s quite common.
In the 2001 war in Afghanistan, the final Taliban stand, before the launch of their large-scale insurgent warfare strategy that lasted years, was something called Operation Anaconda. That&#8217;s where the Taliban fighters dug in in the mountains, and then they tried to engage U.S. forces. This was in 2002, and they lost.
The losing side very often will launch a last stand, a final push, or pull out all the stops.
That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re actually watching right now. The question is whether Iran&#8217;s activity represents the death throes of the regime or the reconsolidation of regime power.
The answer is not up to Iran. It&#8217;s up to the United States and Israel.
The only hope for the Iranian regime right now is that the United States and Israel somehow stop in their tracks before the Iranian regime suffers irreparable damage.
That is precisely why American enemies make that final push. It&#8217;s the last-gasp attempt to prevent the increasingly inevitable.
Iran is a terrorist regime, and so it&#8217;s pursuing three lines of terror tactics. One terror tactic is targeting the American homeland; a second is targeting the Strait of Hormuz and other Gulf oil supplies, and the third is targeting our allies.
<h3>First: The American Homeland</h3>
Yesterday, ABC News reported that the FBI has warned police departments about the possibility of an Iranian drone attack on American soil. According to the FBI, “As of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California.”
President Trump said, “We&#8217;ve got our eyes on the terrorists.” Asked, “Have you been briefed about how many Iran sleeper cells there could be inside the U.S. right now?” he answered, “I have been and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are. We&#8217;ve got our eye on all of them.”
The president is not wrong about the open border. The president also added that when it comes to these threats, all we can really do is take them as they come, which, of course, is the reality.
None of this should be a major shock. Iran has infiltrated South and Latin America. That is one of the reasons that the Trump administration moved against Venezuela, which was the center of Iranian activity in the Western Hemisphere under Nicolas Maduro, now a treasured guest of President Trump in prison. Iran and Venezuela even signed a 20-year cooperation agreement, and that included drones and missiles shipped from Iran to Venezuela.  
<h3>Second: The Threat To The Strait Of Hormuz</h3>
This is making a lot of headlines because it should. Iran has been firing ordnance at oil tankers that have been shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. 
But here&#8217;s the point. If you leave the regime in place, a regime that is increasingly powerful and can choke off that waterway any time it wants, it doesn&#8217;t make things better. 
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/ending-iran-war-quickly-carries-big-risks-for-the-u-s-and-allies-60c003de?utm_source=chatgpt.com">stated:</a> 
<blockquote>Leaving in place Iran’s theocratic regime—angry, defiant and in possession of its nuclear stockpile and what remains of its arsenal of missiles and drones—would essentially grant Tehran control over the world’s energy markets. It would also sacrifice the security of America’s partners and allies, and possibly make another, more devastating, regional war likely.</blockquote>
Right now, President Trump is holding down oil prices largely by talking about the incipient end of the war through the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But the problem with talking about the end of the war is that it&#8217;s the kind of talk that actually emboldens the Iranians to increase their attacks on shipping, hoping that exerting more pressure on the Strait of Hormuz will force President Trump to stop.
What would be really, really helpful here would be America&#8217;s Gulf allies. Saudis, UAE, Qatar: None of them has actually engaged in action against Iran, even though they&#8217;re the ones who are getting truly pounded. You know what they could do? They could increase their pumping. They could pump to areas not controlled by Iran, such as the west of Saudi Arabia.
Iran has fired far more ordnance at the UAE than it has fired at Israel. If our allies are not going to join us offensively in the fight, they could at least relieve pressure on the oil markets created by the Iranian attacks. We are defending them.
<h3>Third: Terrorizing Our Allies</h3>
Which brings us to the third tentacle of Iranian terror, terror against our allies. Iran knows that the entry of the Saudis and the UAE directly into the war would be quite bad for them. And they know that the Saudis and UAE could help the United States calm world markets. That would allow the U.S.-Israel operation to continue, which is why they&#8217;ve been firing more missiles at the Gulf states than at Israel, trying to convince them to cower in fear.
 Israel has been targeted with 550 strikes by Iran. That is 14% of all strikes. Kuwait has been targeted with 24%, UAE with 44% of all strikes. Bahrain has been hit with almost as many strikes as Israel, and Saudi Arabia has been hit with 176.
Qatar is low on the list because, obviously, Qatar and Iran are half-allies.
Iran has been taking indirect counteraction against Israel. They&#8217;ve been using their proxy, Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been absolutely shellacked by Israel over the last couple of years, since the pager operation, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, and the ground operation in Lebanon. Iran is hoping that drawing Israeli resources toward Lebanon might somehow save the Iranian government. They&#8217;re counting on the Lebanese government to back down, because the Lebanese government could theoretically exert some sort of pressure or push the Americans to stop Israel. That is why overnight rockets were raining on northern Israel.
If the Lebanese government doesn&#8217;t stop Hezbollah from its offensive action, if Israel is forced to stop its destruction of Hezbollah yet again, that would be a disaster for the region&#8217;s Christians. Lebanon used to be a Christian country before it was wrecked by the Palestine Liberation Organization, before it was wrecked by the Iranians through Hezbollah. Hezbollah is moving to destroy Lebanon&#8217;s Christian population.
Ordering Hezbollah to attack Israel is another sign of a last gasp.
What does all this mean?
It means that in the end, only the true collapse or serious damage leading to the collapse of the Iranian government will bring lasting victory. That&#8217;s what it means. 
Which is why President Trump correctly says we have to finish the job.
“As we end this threat to America and the world, we don&#8217;t want to leave early. We have to finish the job, right?” <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/11/world-news/trump-says-us-must-finish-the-job-in-virtually-destroyed-iran-dont-want-to-leave-early/">he told</a> a cheering crowd. 
He is correct. We actually have to finish the job. And the goals spelled out by the administration are clear: ending the missile threat, ending the nuclear threat, and ending support of terrorism. Leaving an Iranian regime in power, or at least not seriously destabilized or weakened, would likely encourage China to take aggressive action against Taiwan. 
It is astonishing to me to see the level of uproar over a war that has lasted less than two weeks with extremely low American casualties, by any historic comparison. If China understands that the American attention span is so short that we can&#8217;t even sustain a serious offensive action with low cost for longer than a few weeks, they will know they can move. 
Not only that, if we don&#8217;t do what we can while President Trump, who actually has stones, is president, then Iran likely will come back, mainly because weaker people will be president. People like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or pretty much anyone else, because Trump has been uniquely strong on this score. 
President Trump is not wrong to call this out. He <a href="https://x.com/clashreport/status/2031840956639567928">stated</a>: 
<blockquote>“We don&#8217;t want to go back every two years. There&#8217;ll be some day when you don&#8217;t have me as president, you&#8217;ll have perhaps a weak, pathetic person like we&#8217;ve had in the past. Like Barack Hussein Obama, who signed one of the worst deals ever with Iran, where they were going to give up everything. Remember when he filled up a 757 with billions of dollars of cash and sent it to Iran? People forget that. That&#8217;s when I realized the presidency is very powerful. When you could put over $1 billion in an airplane and fly it over and give it to a foreign country that&#8217;s your enemy. How stupid was that?” </blockquote>
The president is not wrong. 
If you want to end threats to America, you actually have to end them.

TOPSHOT-IRAQ-IRAN-US-ISRAEL-WAR

Death Throes Of A Regime

Ben Shapiro

Drones

Middle East

Oil and Gas

Opinion

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Americans on Tuesday that oil and gas prices would soon come back down, and President Donald Trump&#8217;s massive military operation in Iran would result in lower gas prices in the &#8220;long-term.&#8221;
During a White House press briefing, Leavitt urged Americans to stay patient after gas prices rose to their highest national average in four years. Leavitt said oil and gas prices could drop &#8220;rapidly&#8221; after the U.S. military achieves its objectives in &#8220;Operation Epic Fury.&#8221;
&#8220;The recent increase in oil and gas prices is temporary,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And this operation will result in lower gas prices in the long-term.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a>: &#8220;Rest assured to the American people: the recent increase in oil and gas prices is temporary.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/KeF8ele6HE">pic.twitter.com/KeF8ele6HE</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/2031437515320598782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Brent crude, the international benchmark price point for oil, skyrocketed to nearly $120 per barrel earlier this week, but then plummeted to under $90 after President Trump said on Monday that the war in Iran was &#8220;very far ahead of schedule.&#8221; As of Tuesday afternoon, Brent crude remained just below $90 per barrel, which is still much higher than before the United States and Israel began their joint operation targeting Iran on February 28.
The ongoing war in Iran has squeezed oil flow coming through the Strait of Hormuz, which sits between Iran and the United Arab Emirates and is the only passage for tankers leaving the Persian Gulf. Around 20% of the world&#8217;s oil is transported through the Strait of Hormuz, but that oil flow came to a near complete halt last week. As of Monday, oil tankers again began traversing the strait, with oil tanker traffic ticking up to 20% of its normal level, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs.
Trump has floated taking control of the strait. The White House is also considering using U.S. ships to escort oil tankers.
&#8220;That’s an option the president has said he will absolutely utilize if and when necessary at the appropriate time,” Leavitt said on Tuesday.
The president warned Iran on Monday, saying, &#8220;If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.&#8221;
U.S. intelligence suggests that Iran could be preparing to drop mines in the Strait of Hormuz, CBS News <a href="https://x.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/2031433322555937181">reported</a>. Such a move could further threaten oil tanker traffic and stall oil flow to the world. If tankers are prevented from passing through the Strait of Hormuz for more than two weeks, oil could reach $150 per barrel, some experts warned, according to the Associated Press. Saudi Arabia&#8217;s state-run oil company also warned of &#8220;catastrophic consequences&#8221; for global oil markets if the important shipping lane does not reopen soon.

Gas Prices

White House Reassures Americans About Oil Prices, Hints At ‘Long-Term’ Relief At The Pump

Crude Oil

Donald Trump

Global Politics

Israel

Karoline Leavitt

Trump Administration

White House

World

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Tuesday would mark the “most intense” day of strikes against Iran since the launch of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation. 
“Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence, more refined, and better than ever,” Hegseth said during a press briefing Tuesday morning. “On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they&#8217;ve been capable of firing yet.”
During the same briefing, General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more than 5,000 Iranian targets have been struck since the operation began. He also said that Air Force bombers had dropped dozens of 2,000-pound GPS-guided penetrating weapons on deeply buried missile launchers in recent days. 
“On day 10 of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives,” Hegseth said. “No hesitation, no half measures. As President Trump declared yesterday, we&#8217;re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force. We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.”
Hegseth also defended the U.S. military&#8217;s record on minimizing civilian casualties. 
“No nation takes more precautions to ensure there is never targeting of civilians than the U.S.,” he said. “From the boat strikes in the Caribbean to this campaign here, no nation in the history of warfare has ever attempted in every way possible to avoid civilian casualties.”
Hegseth added that the U.S. military investigates any incidents where questions arise.
“It’s a point that isn’t appreciated enough,” he said. “Where things happen that need to be investigated, we’ll investigate.”
Those comments came after the Pentagon said it was investigating reports that an Iranian girls&#8217; school had been struck during the operation. 
During the briefing, Caine and Hegseth outlined the three primary objectives of the campaign. First, Caine said the goal was to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile and drone capabilities to prevent attacks on U.S. forces and regional partners.
“That means attacking launch sites, command and control nodes, and stockpiles before they can threaten our personnel, our facilities, and our partners,” he said.
Second, Caine said the U.S. military is targeting Iran’s naval forces while protecting shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz. 
The third goal, Caine said, is targeting Iran’s military and industrial base, including weapons production facilities, research sites, and related infrastructure.

Secretary Pete Hegseth Hosts Americas Counter Cartel Conference In Florida

Pentagon: Most Punishing U.S. Strikes Yet On Iran Happening Now

Pete Hegseth

The following is an edited transcript excerpt from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/hosts/michael-knowles?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Hosts&amp;rowType=Hosts+Portrait+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
You know you&#8217;ve gone too far in your Middle East bombing campaign when Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tells you to cool your jets. 
Sen. Graham — whom I like personally — has never seen a Middle Eastern country he didn’t want to bomb. He&#8217;s been beating the drum for war for a very, very long time.
That&#8217;s why it gives a lot of credibility to his criticism in his recent tweets on X:
<blockquote>Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative…</blockquote>
You can just sense there’s a “but” coming. And here it is:
<blockquote>However, there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous Ayatollah regime. In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select. Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Our allies in Israel have shown amazing capability when it comes to collapsing the murderous regime in Iran. America is most appreciative.
However, there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous ayatollah’s regime.
In…
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/2030801898891026592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @LindseyGrahamSC/X.com
For background, Graham&#8217;s statement comes after Axios published <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/08/us-dismayed-israel-iran-fuel-strikes">this article</a>, which says:
<blockquote>Israel&#8217;s strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots Saturday went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the allies since the war began eight days ago, according to a U.S. official, Israeli official and a source with knowledge.</blockquote>
Now, whenever the United States and Israel — or any two allies — are publicly disagreeing, there’s always the possibility that it’s partly a show. Sometimes governments signal disagreement publicly while coordinating privately. But this situation suggests otherwise. There may be a legitimate difference of opinion. Maybe a little tail wagging the dog here?
On its own, Lindsey Graham publicly rebuking Israel is notable. He’s a major, longtime supporter of Israel and a major supporter of regime change in Iran. He is not exactly shy about using the military. And he’s saying: guys, what are we doing here?
The reporting says the United States is worried this could backfire strategically. And those concerns highlight the stakes of the war.
My reaction from the beginning — when the possibility of war with Iran started circulating — has been that there are two very firm camps making overly simplistic arguments.
On one hand you have the pacifists who say war is never the answer, that there is never any place for war. That’s not a serious moral or political position.
On the other hand you have hardcore ideological neocon types — who say the United States has a moral duty to spread liberal democracy everywhere on earth. That’s also a very ideological view.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/hosts/michael-knowles?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Hosts&amp;rowType=Hosts+Portrait+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1054531" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
If you get rid of those two extremes, then there are the people in the middle where reasonable minds can disagree over the wisdom of the Iran campaign. That&#8217;s certainly where President Trump is. That&#8217;s certainly where I am and where I think most people are.
In the lead-up to the Iran war, when it became clear it was going to happen, I was asking people who were in the know — grand strategy types, diplomats — what do you think about this? Should we go to war in Iran? Should we not go to war in Iran?
And the most persuasive answer I heard was: Well, if we can do it quickly and successfully, then it would be good to change out the regime. But if we can&#8217;t, we shouldn&#8217;t.
So, I&#8217;ve said from the beginning, if I were on the National Security Council (NSC) — not that anyone invited me — but if I had been on the NSC, I would have made all the arguments I could against the Iran strike. Not based on any particular moral argument. I think there&#8217;s legal justification to go into Iran. Again, the government had more knowledge than I did when they launched the strike, but if they had asked me, based only on publicly available knowledge I would have said: Look, I don&#8217;t know that the threat from Iran is as grave as people are suggesting or as imminent. Also, I&#8217;m not confident that we can efficiently and effectively swap out the regime in Iran to get a more Western-friendly regime.
So because of those practical, prudential, pragmatic matters, I don&#8217;t know that it&#8217;s the right idea. But if you could convince me otherwise on those two points, then I would say, yes, it&#8217;s probably a good idea.
And these are the stakes here.
President Trump is taking a much more realistic view. This comes right out of his National Security Strategy that was released last November. President Trump clearly believes that he&#8217;s the guy to do it — that he can do it. He has great confidence in himself and in his foreign policy and in the people he&#8217;s empowered to efficiently get rid of the Iranian regime and build up a more pro-Western regime.
Similar to what he did in Venezuela. An operation free of global fallout, that will rebuff our enemies like China and Russia, and that will make America great again — that will help us on the world stage and give us a chance, after decades of decline in the American empire, to be great again.
He thinks he&#8217;s the guy who can do it. And maybe he is. He&#8217;s got a pretty good record so far.
The distinction between him and, say, George W. Bush when it comes to foreign policy would be: Bush wasn&#8217;t that good at it, and I am good at it.
But in order for that to work, things need to go perfectly. And that&#8217;s a really, really tall order in the best circumstances.
And in order for that to work, we need to not turn the Iranian people against us. We need to keep public sentiment against the Islamic regime and at least tolerating us, if not openly supportive of the United States, grateful for our mission.
And we need to make sure the country doesn&#8217;t become completely destabilized. Which means sometimes we need to rein in Israel — just like we would have to rein in any other ally if they got a little out of control.
That&#8217;s the point Lindsey Graham is making. That&#8217;s the point it seems the White House is making with the leak to Axios.
Those are the stakes.
As I’ve had to explain to friends who are deeply skeptical of the war in Iran — the quasi-isolationists — if this works, it will be the greatest foreign policy achievement of any president since the end of the Cold War. Take the Cold War off the table, and it may rank among the most significant foreign policy victories of the last eighty years.
But if this goes south, Trump’s legacy will look a lot like George W. Bush’s.
Those are the stakes.
Stakes so high that even Lindsey Graham is publicly signaling caution — urging Israel to rein it in. That alone tells you everything about how high they are.

Protests During The 62nd Munich Security Conference

When Lindsey Graham Says ‘Slow Down,’ You Know It’s Serious

When Lindsey Graham Says 'Slow Down,' You Know It’s Serious

Lindsey Graham

Michael Knowles

Brent crude, which is considered the international benchmark price point for oil, reached nearly $120 per barrel on Monday morning before plummeting to below $90 in the afternoon as President Donald Trump gave another positive update on the war in Iran.
The rapid drop in U.S. crude late in the day came as President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-iranian-protests-intensify-as-citizens-demand-end-to-ayatollah-rule?contentProgram=LIVE%20UPDATES%3A%20Iran%20Threatens%20To%20Seize%20Property%20Of%20Anti-Regime%20Citizens%20Living%20Abroad&amp;contentType=Post&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel">said</a> the war, which has lasted for over one week, is &#8220;very far ahead of schedule&#8221; after initially predicting a four-to-five-week operation. Following Trump&#8217;s latest comments on the Iran conflict, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&amp;P 500 also climbed. The Dow initially <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oil-stock-markets-iran-war-458890210407eb0cba85c7e1a684c890">fell</a> around 900 points early on Monday before closing the day up 261 points, while the S&amp;P 500 turned a 1.5% fall in the morning into a gain of nearly 1% by the closing bell.
&#8220;I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump told CBS News in a phone interview. &#8220;They have no navy, no communications, they&#8217;ve got no air force,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones.&#8221;
&#8220;If you look, they have nothing left. There&#8217;s nothing left in a military sense,&#8221; he added.
Snippets of Trump&#8217;s interview were <a href="https://x.com/weijia/status/2031086856679412042">posted</a> by CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang just after 3:15 p.m. ET, which was roughly the same time that the steep drop in Brent crude and the rise in the markets began.
Trump also <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-iran-cbs-news-the-war-is-very-complete-strait-hormuz/">told</a> CBS News that he is considering taking control of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital passage between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, where around 20% of the world&#8217;s oil typically traverses each day. Since the conflict in Iran began, tankers have been mostly halted from passing through the strait and into the open ocean. Trump said on Monday afternoon, however, that ships are once again moving through the strait and added that the Iranian regime would be completely obliterated if it threatens ships.
&#8220;If they do anything bad, that would be the end of Iran, and you&#8217;d never hear the name again,&#8221; Trump said.
If tankers are prevented from passing through the Strait of Hormuz for more than two weeks, oil could reach $150 per barrel, some experts warned, according to the Associated Press. Gas prices in the United States have surged since Trump&#8217;s Iran operation began. The national average for gas has climbed to $3.47 per gallon since last week, according to AAA. Before the recent rise, gas prices in the United States had mostly fallen since Trump took office last year.
Trump has not said when exactly &#8220;Operation Epic Fury&#8221; would end, but during <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9bkyOTCrEg">remarks</a> to Republican lawmakers in Doral, Florida, later Monday afternoon, he said that the U.S. military &#8220;will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.&#8221; U.S. forces have decimated the Iranian navy and military capabilities, and the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Iran&#8217;s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Seven U.S. troops have been killed since the United States launched its major military operation on February 28.

Trump Reassurance On Iran War Lifts Mood Across Oil, Stocks

Oil Prices Plummet, Stocks Climb As Trump Says Iran War 'Very Complete'

Stock Market

After touting the destruction of 42 Iranian naval vessels in three days and the disruption of the country’s communications systems and air force, President Trump credited the success to policies from his first term.
“I built the military and rebuilt it and made it very strong in my first administration along with many other things,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;And now we are using it, unfortunately we have to.”
During Trump&#8217;s first four years in office, more than <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/national-security-defense/">$2.2 trillion</a> was directed toward defense spending. That funding went to modernizing nuclear forces and missile defenses, upgrading cyber defenses, and advanced missile defense capabilities and regional alliances.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller declared the United States military had been &#8220;unleashed&#8221; after ditching political correctness.
&#8220;One of the reasons I fear that some people in this country lost faith in the military and the capacity to use that military to defend us is because we had a Woke Pentagon — because we had a military who, at the very highest levels—not the warfighters—was forced to fight a less than full fight,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2029391225019654433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2029391225019654433%7Ctwgr%5E878a7800280a4245b5a897fca819016bf58d422a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Funleashed-stephen-miller-declares-end-of-woke-pentagon-as-trump-restores-military-might">stated</a> Miller on Thursday. &#8220;What you&#8217;re seeing now is a military that is unleashed in all of its lethal prowess to go out and seek, destroy, and kill the enemy.&#8221;
President Trump&#8217;s U.S. Space Force, established in 2019, helps feed intelligence across the military. Space Force develops and defends communication satellites, engineers global cybersecurity networks, supports rocket launches, and uses space systems to connect operations on land, sea, air, cyber, and space. Space Force provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines with GPS/navigation, missile warning systems, and intelligence from space.
The strength of the United States military is known worldwide, with world leaders praising it as well. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nato-europe-us-nuclear-trump-defense-security-c1575be708cbd813f1c7d97c87628ff6">told</a> EU lawmakers, “If anyone thinks here … that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming.”
President Trump said he did the world a favor by targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They were very close to a nuclear weapon. They would have had one if we didn’t do our B2 hit, Midnight Hammer. They would have had it eight months ago. They would have had a nuclear weapon and they’re crazy and they would have used it.”
When asked to rate the success of Operation Midnight Hammer on a scale from 1-10, the president responded, “About a fifteen, I would say—with ten being the best.” He added, “There’s no military on earth like it, not even close. We are doing very well in Iran. You see the result. It’s been amazing.”
The U.S. Central Command revealed on Friday that U.S. forces struck over <a href="https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2030118409883541979">3,000</a> targets in the first week of Operation Epic Fury. The military is targeting Iranian command and control centers, ballistic missile sites, Navy ships and submarines, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) joint headquarters.
&#8220;They’re just bad people. When you look at October 7 and beyond October 7, look at all the killing that they’ve done. Over the years, for 47 years. And this had to be done,&#8221; the president said.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/at-least-5000-dead-in-iran-unrest-official-says-as-judiciary-hints-at-executions">Thousands</a> of people have been killed while protesting in Iran, with the total number of protester deaths believed to be in the tens of thousands.

TOPSHOT-IRAN-US-ISRAEL-WAR

Trump Credits First-Term Military Rebuild With Powering U.S. Offensive Against Iran

Stephen Miller

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a solemn dignified transfer Saturday at Dover Air Force Base to honor six U.S. soldiers killed in a drone attack during the opening days of the war with Iran.
The ceremony marked the return of the fallen service members to U.S. soil after they were killed March 1 when an Iranian drone struck a command center in Port Shuaiba while they were supporting Operation Epic Fury. The dignified transfer — the process of returning the remains of service members killed in action — is one of the most sacred responsibilities of the commander in chief.
During the ceremony, Trump stood silently and saluted as each flag-draped transfer case was carried from the military aircraft and placed into waiting vehicles that transported the remains to the mortuary facility at Dover, where they will be formally identified and prepared for burial. The families of each of the soldiers were present and observed the ceremony, which lasted roughly 30 minutes.
The six soldiers were members of the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-military-deaths-0a3f1532ec1953d51898e5b5e2b625d6">103rd Sustainment Command</a>. The unit provides critical logistical support for military operations, including food, fuel, water, ammunition, and transportation of equipment and supplies.
The fallen troops were identified as Major Jeffery O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; Captain Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Florida; Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sergeant Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa; and Chief Warrant Officer Three Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California.
Trump called the soldiers heroes earlier in the day while speaking at a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-shield-of-the-americas-summit/">summit of Latin American leaders</a> in Miami before traveling to Delaware. &#8220;They&#8217;re great heroes in our country, and we&#8217;re going to keep it that way,&#8221; he said.
“They’re coming home in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home,” the president said, describing the deaths as “a very sad situation” while pledging to keep American war casualties “to a minimum.”
Vice President JD Vance and his wife also attended the ceremony, along with several top administration officials including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Governors and members of Congress from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Florida were also present to honor the fallen soldiers.
Secretary Hegseth said earlier that the nation would honor the troops’ sacrifice and the mission they carried out.
“These soldiers engaged in the most noble mission: protecting their fellow Americans and keeping our homeland secure,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, an Army combat veteran who paid tribute to the soldiers earlier this week.
The soldiers were among the first American casualties of the war that erupted after U.S. and Israeli forces launched a military campaign against Iran. Officials said the service members were supporting operations in the region when the unmanned aircraft struck their position.
For Trump, the ceremony marked another return to Dover to honor fallen troops. During his first term, he attended multiple dignified transfers, once <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlK0K-NDLVc">describing</a> the ritual and writing letters to the families of servicemen killed as “the hardest thing I have to do” as president.
Family members of the fallen described the soldiers as devoted service members and loved ones who took pride in serving their country.
Sergeant Amor’s husband said she had been scheduled to return home to their two children just days after the attack. Coady’s father described his son as a hardworking young soldier who “loved being a soldier,” while relatives of O’Brien and Marzan remembered them as dedicated family men and respected leaders.
As the transfer cases were carried from the aircraft one by one, Trump saluted each soldier, paying tribute to the six Americans whose service ended on the battlefield.

‘Hardest Thing I Have To Do’ As President: Trump Salutes Fallen U.S. Soldiers Returning From Iran War

Many people are asking questions about what happens to Iran after the ayatollahs are gone. It will almost certainly be better than what it was.
The only way America would be worse off would be if the regime in Tehran were replaced by a regime run by even worse ayatollahs with even faster access to nuclear materials, ballistic missile development, and terror funding.
President Trump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpE3VmD3XN8">said</a>:
<blockquote>I guess the worst case would be, we do this and then somebody takes over who&#8217;s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen. We don&#8217;t want that to happen. It would probably be worse if you go through this and then, in five years, you realize you put somebody in who was no better. So we&#8217;d like to see somebody in there that&#8217;s going to bring it back for the people.</blockquote>
The president is correct. And you could see from his rather dismissive smile that he does not think the “worst thing” is going to happen.
There are a ton of people out there on the Left and the horseshoe Right ignoring the simple fact that the ayatollahs are the worst possible regime. These people yell about the evils of regime change, about the dangers of long-standing occupation with boots on the ground, etc.
Let&#8217;s cover all of that right now. Let&#8217;s start with regime change. We keep hearing about how regime change is dangerous, a failure.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2381-the-ben-shapiro-show"><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>
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader and pathological liar, <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2029312438068494585?s=20">said</a>,
<blockquote>Americans spent the last two decades fighting and dying in the Middle East. Parents watch their kids shipped off to foreign lands. So many lives lost, so many billions wasted, so much suffering and anguish that scarred an entire generation. Why is Donald Trump hellbent on making history repeat itself? Why is he plunging America headfirst into a war that Americans do not want, and which he cannot even explain?”</blockquote>
Schumer is a wildly dishonest player.
He&#8217;s been yelling about the ayatollahs for years, but then apparently quietly supporting the JCPOA, which was Obama’s attempt to ship pallets of cash to the ayatollahs and give them a ten-year runway to a nuclear bomb. But the truth is, he only cares enough to yell a little bit. And then he turns around, and he yells at anyone who actually wants to do something about the ayatollahs.
But let&#8217;s talk about that term, regime change. Regime change implies a long-standing commitment in which the United States engages in serious nation-building efforts.
Sometimes that works. Germany, Japan, and South Korea are prime examples.
Sometimes it doesn&#8217;t work. Afghanistan would be the prime example.
Iraq is actually a checkered example. We forget about Iraq and what happened afterward; Iraq is indeed a functioning but fragile quasi-democracy with a nominal GDP roughly 10 to 15 times larger than it was under Saddam Hussein. The current regime has real problems and is associated with a wide variety of sectarian groups, but it is certainly better than Saddam&#8217;s, even if most Americans believe that the cost wasn&#8217;t worth it.
That&#8217;s a fair argument against the war in Iraq, but not against the principle of regime change overall.
In Iran, we&#8217;re not really talking about regime change in the technical sense, because regime change refers, generally, to an American-overseen process of government building where we put hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground, and then ensure every step of the governmental transition.
What we&#8217;re talking about with Iran is regime destruction or replacement, where we knock over the regime and let it fall, but we don&#8217;t actually participate in long-term nation-building.
Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn&#8217;t, because it turns out that history is complicated.
There are many examples of regime replacement or regime destruction. Some of those are failures. For example, in Libya, we provided air support to rebels to take out Muammar Gaddafi, which was a huge mistake that I opposed at the time. And then we let the country take its own course. That led to a massive migration crisis and an all-out civil war that continues to this day.
Why was that a mistake? Because Gaddafi was actually contained, and the people rebelling against him were a checkered group of sundry terrorists and others.
And then there&#8217;s Iran itself, where the Carter administration essentially withdrew support from the Shah of Iran, and we have been suffering with the consequences ever since.
But there are more positive examples. In Chile, we created the pressure that led to the coup against the Marxist Salvador Allende, who was replaced by General Augusto Pinochet, who was an anti-communist and also a human rights abuser, but who began instituting capitalist mechanisms that eventually led to prosperity and, under American pressure, democratization. In fact, we are the ones who pressured Pinochet out of power. He thought about another military coup when he lost an election, and we said, we will not support anything remotely like that. You&#8217;re giving up power.
Or, for example, Panama, where we deposed Manuel Noriega. We then installed the winner of the prior election, and things have worked out pretty well.
And, of course, that&#8217;s pretty much what we just did in Venezuela, where we destroyed the top of the regime and then left a second person in place. And now that person, Delcy Rodriguez, is basically being squeezed until she squeaks.
She put out a statement yesterday <a href="https://x.com/delcyrodriguezv/status/2029303103980245356">saying</a>,
<blockquote>I thank President Trump for the willingness of his government to work together on an agenda that strengthens binational cooperation for the benefit of the peoples of the United States and Venezuela.</blockquote>
In other words, not all “regime change” is alike. It&#8217;s not always Iraq. And pretending that it is, is ignorant. There&#8217;s a reason why Venezuela was handled one way and why Iran is being handled in another. And it&#8217;s not necessarily because Venezuela is in the Western Hemisphere. It&#8217;s because Iran is run by a fundamentalist Islamist death cult.
In order to truly understand how evil the ayatollahs are, let Patrick Bet David, who has some experience in this area, explain.
He said of <a href="https://x.com/PBDsPodcast/status/2028496943891226896">the original</a> Ayatollah Khomeini:
<blockquote>You guys want to know what Khomeini once said about what to do to women in prison? He once said female prisoners who are virgins must be raped before execution to prevent them from entering heaven. Isn&#8217;t he an amazing guy to say something like that? That&#8217;s the guy that died — when he died, I was in Iran, June 3, 89 — I was there when the guy died. They didn&#8217;t kill him. He died. This guy who was supposed to be a hero for them? “Female prisoners who are virgins must be raped before execution.” &#8230; No human being – You would never write that. You would never subscribe to that.</blockquote>
Not all regime change is the same.

TOPSHOT-ITALY-IRAN-POLITICS-PROTEST

Regime Change Vs. Regime Replacement: Lessons From History

Afghanistan

Iraq

The most significant threat to the United States military is the strategic divide between the citizen and the soldier, a distance that has only increased in recent decades as more and more Americans live removed from military life. A peek under the hood at the military planning apparatus can create an eye-opening experience for many otherwise well-informed citizens. Such is the case with a controversy that has spread like wildfire through the pages of Reddit and posts on X since the current Iran Operation began, focused on the infamous Millennium Challenge wargame, and particularly the approach of Marine Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper.
During peacetime, the military professionals of this country conduct serious and deliberate research in an attempt to understand “What is the American way of war? What are its strengths and weaknesses?” Far from an academic exercise, this self-understanding is vital to winning our nation’s wars. As American bombs fall on Tehran and our Navy dismantles what remains of Iran’s fleet, most Americans are watching the explosions without understanding the decades of quiet work that made this moment possible.
In the summer of 2002, the Pentagon conducted a $250 million exercise called Millennium Challenge, the most expensive war game in American history. A retired Marine Lieutenant General named Paul Van Riper was chosen to command the opposing force (a thinly veiled Iran). Van Riper was brilliant, aggressive, and innovative. He used motorcycle couriers instead of radios and signaled attacks from mosque loudspeakers. He launched swarms of suicide boats and a massive cruise missile salvo against a carrier battle group inside the Persian Gulf. In the first hours of the exercise, he sank sixteen warships and killed over twenty thousand Americans on paper. 
This was an astounding result. The exercise was halted, the ships “refloated,” and the game restarted with a script guaranteeing an American victory. Van Riper struggled under increasing “control mechanisms,” which he viewed as unfair, and then stepped down as the OPFOR commander mid-exercise.
The conventional reading of Millennium Challenge is that it was an expensive embarrassment. On the one hand, critics posited that Pentagon brass couldn’t stomach honest results, and more conservative voices faulted Van Riper for “breaking” the exercise. The latter argued that the simulation had been exploited: small boat swarms carrying unrealistically large explosive loads, couriers simulated as instantaneous, and air forces conjured from nowhere. They opined that Van Riper was overplaying. They pointed to Operation Praying Mantis in 1988, and later the events of April 2024. When Iran launched over three hundred drones and missiles at Israel in April 2024, 99% of them were intercepted. The pattern held in October 2024 and the Twelve-Day War of June 2025. Every real-world test confirmed what skeptics argued: Iran could never execute the Van Riper playbook.
Here is what amateurs and skeptics miss. The military effectiveness of Operation Epic Fury is precisely because Van Riper played the enemy so aggressively. This is why we were prepared.
Every day for decades, gray-faced staff officers swiped into the CENTCOM compound in Tampa and burned the midnight oil for uncelebrated hours upon hours to develop solutions to Millennium Challenge — think of it as the equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru. The 752-page JFCOM after-action report acknowledged what Van Riper had proven: that a 24-hour notice to Iran could be devastating to the United States; that we must focus on anti-access threats consistently; and that we lacked deployment agility and needed to take care in our basing.
These findings became vital data points to planners. Across two decades, posture was developed in depth, we upgraded our weapons (Arrow-3, upgraded Aegis), ringed the Gulf with THAAD batteries, and refined counter-drone and counter-small-boat technologies. We stopped giving adversaries twenty-four-hour ultimatums. We increased carrier standoff. All measures built against the Van Riper challenge. That is the legacy of Millennium Challenge ‘02.
There is a growing chasm in this country between those who serve and those who don’t, and nowhere is it wider than in understanding what the military does when it isn’t fighting. There are no movies or medals for the men and women who spend careers in the windowless vaults at CENTCOM, producing war plans upon contingencies, upon war plans upon contingencies — all classified, most never executed, none glamorous. I was one of them. What those planners do, year after year, is imagine the worst scenarios and build the architecture to defeat them. The dominance you are witnessing against Iran was not born on February 28, 2026. It was born in those vaults, over decades, by people whose names you will never know.
A perceptive cynic might see this as the self-gratifying sentiment of a retired Colonel, and maybe so. More importantly, however, with Operation Epic Fury, we are answering one of our own vital questions: “What is the American way of war?” It is an opportunity for an honest reckoning of where we excel and a humble review of where we falter.
We are outstanding planners, inheritors of the discipline of Alfred von Schlieffen and the foresight of the Rainbow Plans of the 1920s. Give America two decades to plan a theater war against a known adversary, and we will execute with devastating precision. No nation on earth comes close. But we ought to pause and ask harder questions about how we respond to the unexpected. We should ask ourselves whether we are a one-trick pony — vulnerable to conflicts in places that don’t look like the National Training Center at Barstow, against enemies we haven’t spent a generation gaming out. Today, we recognize the gift that preparation gives us.
Twenty-four years ago, Paul Van Riper sank our fleet on a computer screen, and a lot of very serious people in concrete rooms took notice. As a community, we studied his moves, debated their veracity, and then built systems to counter them. We war-gamed and rehearsed his tactics until the countermoves became doctrine and the doctrine became muscle memory. Now, Iran has attempted the real thing by unleashing drone swarms, missile barrages, closing the Strait of Hormuz, and conducting attacks across the Gulf. All of which are being decisively defeated.
So today, we owe our thanks and gratitude to Lt. Gen. Van Riper. His courage and insight fueled every nameless planner who will walk through the CENTCOM gates next month and do it all again — because that is what makes victory possible.
* * *
COL (ret) Alexander “Xander” Bullock served in the U.S. Army from 1997-2024, with a tour at U.S. Central Command from 2016–2020 as a logistics planner, logistics operations officer, and advisor in the CENTCOM Commander’s Action Group.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Riper marines

America Lost An Infamous Wargame To Iran. That’s Why We’re Winning Now. 

America Lost An Infamous Wargame To Iran. That's Why We're Winning Now. 

Marines

Menu