The Morning Briefing: Iran War Continues to Be Whatever Anyone Wants It to Be

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. The Sine Qua Non Sequitur is judging hemp-based fly fishing apparel in a Peruvian doomsday bunker.

It was too much to hope that all of the Anthony Fauci furor would have died down during my weekly scheduled personal news blackout. Again, I don't believe that Fauci will ever face the kinds of consequeneces he deserves, if any at all. I'd rather not have his name and likeness inducing flashbacks to the COVID dark days everywhere I look.

Doctor Death might be grabbing a lot of the media headlines right now, but it's the conflict with Iran that comes up most frequently when I talk to conservatives who don't write about politics for a living.

I can talk to 20 people from all across the political spectrum about the war with Iran and be reasonably assured that I will get 20 different opinions on how it is going and/or how it should be going. This is from a column I wrote in April:

Welcome to the war that has something in the media for everyone. OK, people who would prefer to be patient and temper their opinions might struggle to find a lot of news fare that suits them, but those who want to rush to conclusions about victory or defeat will find plenty to keep them happy.

That was written a little more than a month after the whole thing had kicked off; not much has changed since then. That column was about people expecting a quick and tidy resolution for a war, a desire that has never been reasonable.

Less than half a year in, there are people on both sides of the aisle blathering on about this being a "forever war." Apparently, that's the buzz phrase that has replaced "quagmire" for armchair generals. That suits me, because "quagmire" is indelibly associated with Family Guy now, and it just doesn't go well with any kind of serious conversation.

Nobody who is sane wants wars to go on forever, but it's patently absurd to think that we're into another Vietnam because there hasn't been a neat and clean resolution after five months. What's really disturbing is that I heard some people who I know to be supporters of President Trump leaning this way.

Iran has been the big, bad, moneybags wolf in the Middle East for a very long time and the psycho clerics who run it are not amused by the idea of being kneecapped by the Great Satan. This was never going to be easy. This is from Catherine:

Just before the end of July, an official of the terrorist Iranian regime once again insisted that the current conflict cannot end until and unless the U.S. concedes the murderous mullahs full and uncontested control—and likely toll power—over the Strait of Hormuz.
It is very important to understand that no matter how many times the Iranian regime says it is willing to look at a proposal from the United States in order to put off major strikes, that doesn’t mean the regime ever changes its core demands. Nor will it ever do so, because the regime is run by fundamentalist Muslims who believe that by waging endless jihad against the United States, they are triggering the coming of their Islamic messiah, the Mahdi.

President Trump has tried to bring about a diplomatic resolution to the war, despite the Sisyphean nature of the task. He gets mocked for that by the Democrats' flying monkeys in the mainstream media because they're clinically insane. If he didn't try the diplomatic route, they'd be calling him a wreckless cowboy.

Thanks to Jimmy Carter, our intelligence-gathering capabilities in the Middle East aren't exactly robust. Obviously, that increases the likelihood of encountering unforeseen problems once the enemy is engaged.

Democrats really do ruin everything.

I don't have any crystal ball opinions on the situation with Iraq. I also don't think that war progress should be reassessed every 24 hours as if we're all studio executives checking television ratings.

As I have written many times, this is a time to have faith in the guy I voted for, even if I'm not thrilled with what's happening at a given time. It's not blind faith, it's merely acknowledgement that this is a president whose priorities are in sync with mine, and that he's assembled a brilliant team to focus on those priorities.

I will be plenty critical if it becomes clear that this conflict isn't going to work out in the United States' favor. We're not there yet, though.

Not after five months.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence

We will begin with a note that Sheryl V-R sent last week:

This week of the Fifth Amendment Troll on television and the DSA idiots has gotten under my mood a little bit. To paraphrase an old John Derbyshire comment, i've spent my adult life paying for a nuclear deterrent and i'm ready for some return on my investment. I don't ever want to hear about the IRGC again. I hope PDJT takes the gloves off soon. And I also hope some of my future grandchildren ask me someday if i've ever heard of a houthi, and what they were, so I can start singing "dust in the wind". You have a great weekend, Kruiser, and I'll try to get lighter hearted. Best, Sheryl in Georgia

I had just decided to lead the Briefing off today with a discussion about Iran when I read your email. As I mentioned at the top, it's on a lot of minds these days, even with all of the Anthony Fauci noise. I was trying to come up with a clever jihadi pirates line about the Houthis, but since they're from Yemen all I can think about is Chandler saying, "I'M GOING TO YEMEN!" to get away from Janice on Friends. I'll try to help you lighten up this week, but I do have to write about the left.

Bruce F. writes:

Happy day-drinking, Mr. K. Just got back from a concert at Red Rocks. Fairly good show without any of the anticipated Politi-crap diatribes from the band. That being said, the VAST majority of the crowd (at least those that weren't too high to understand what was being said - man, there was a lot of weed being smoked in this non-smoking venue) would have howled with venomous enthusiasm at such a monologue. My question is, where do these non-productive members of society get the money to attend these shows let alone follow them around from city to city? Our tickets were $175@ and I was hesitant to lay that out but for the incredible experience that Red Rocks is. Any thoughts or previous research on who the heck is funding these lemmings?

I'm a bit of a health nut at the moment, so there's not a lot of day-drinking. It's still happening, it's just over faster now. I've been wondering the same thing about concert tickets. I don't think I ever paid more than $40 when I was going to a lot of concerts in the '80s, '90s, and early aughts. Most were around 25 bucks. I wanted to see Dwight Yoakam the last time he was in Tucson and my heartbeat became irregular when I saw that the tickets were $111. I called a friend and asked her the same thing you did about how so many young, rarely employed student types can afford to go to so many concerts. It's a mystery to me. I feel that there might be a short story in me about the nefarious shadow funding of the concertgoing habits of liberal arts students.

That's it to start the week. Thanks to all of my correspondence friends!

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POTUS Press Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
08/02/26

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
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