CENTCOM's Talking Directly to the Iranian People

Good morning and welcome to Monday, March 23, 2026. Today is National Puppy Day and National Chips and Dip Day. Just think, it’s only 277 days until Christmas.

Today in History:

1490: First dated edition of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, a code of Jewish religious law, is published.

1743: George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah premieres at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

1775: Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death" in a speech encouraging Virginia troops to join the American Revolutionary War.

1857: Elisha Otis installs his first elevator at 488 Broadway in New York City.

1903: The Wright brothers first file a patent for a flying machine, which the U.S. Patent Office grants three years later.

1919: The Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo, which becomes the center of political power in the Soviet Union. Original members are Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev, and Nikolai Krestinsky.

1957: U.S. Army sells its last homing pigeons.

1970: Conway Twitty released his single "Hello Darlin'," which became Billboard’s Song of the Year.

1983: President Ronald Reagan introduces the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars").

Birthdays today include: Fannie Farmer, American culinary pioneer and cookbook author (She had no direct connection to the candy shops that used her name); actress Joan Crawford; rocket scientist Wernher von Braun; racer Craig Breedlove; The Cars’ Ric Ocasek; and singer Chaka Khan.

Is today your day, too? Here’s a birthday wish for you. Happy Birthday.

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Word from  Mike Rothman, this morning via X:

𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗖𝗢𝗠 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗟𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘

CENTCOM Commander Admiral Cooper just delivered a message — not to the Iranian regime. 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲.

Stay inside. The regime doesn't care… pic.twitter.com/70r3KhNWtF

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) March 23, 2026

Rothman goes on to suggest:

And then this: 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵, 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵. Read that again. The Commander of CENTCOM is telling 90 million Iranians that there is a signal coming — a moment when it will be safe to come out. That is not the language of a military campaign. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. The Iranian people have lived under this regime for 47 years. They've been shot in the eyes for showing their hair. Thirty-two thousand k!lled in the crackdown of January 2026 alone. The regime launches its missiles from their neighborhoods and then hides behind them. America is not at war with the Iranian people. 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗻. The signal is coming.

Encouraging chatter if nothing else. Frankly, I've been expecting this. Grok confirms all of this, saying the interview with CENTCOM's commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, was just this morning.

The tip off was President Trump posting on Truth Social early today, that the U.S. and Iran have had "very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East" over the past two days, and instructed the Department of War to postpone all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period.

Trump says Iran has committed to not pursuing nuclear weapons or enriched uranium. It has also agreed to hand over its existing stockpiles and open the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iran supposedly denies all of it. Fox News says this morning:

Iranian state television is denying that any negotiation are underway, but Trump rejected that reporting to Bartiromo, saying peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had spoken with their counterparts Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said he's been talking by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been an intermediary before in negotiations between Tehran and Washington in the past, so that part fits.

The thing is that one gets the impression they're not all on the same page over there, so what they say depends on who you're talking to. We're talking about the equivalent of Baghdad Bob, versus reality.  And while the United Arab Emirates reported intercepting new incoming missile fire from Iran, that attack is possibly due to a lack of communication with whatever leadership is left in Iran these days. I very much doubt that front-line commanders firing those missiles are in the loop of the negotiations with Turkey and the U. S., even under normal conditions, much less the depleted situation they find themselves in now. Iranian State Television, in the same way.

It may also be true that they're not all operating from the same page. The result of that lack of unity in Iran's leaders has resulted, I think, in their not once abiding by any agreements they've ever made with Western powers. No matter who you get to agree to terms, there's always some hothead ready to fire off a missile or three, and boom, we're back on again. That's been the way of it for close on 50 years, now with both Iran and its proxies. That is possibly the case now.
 
These things are moving quite quickly, so stay tuned.

Thought for the day:  “Mondays are a basic test of survival.” —Unknown

Take care today. I still need readers for Tuesday, and I can't do it without you. (LOL)

See you then.

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