The Iran War has turned kinetic again, and the reason is the Strait of Hormuz. “U.S.-Iran War Latest: Tankers hit in Strait of Hormuz as Trump mulls more strikes in ‘relatively little war’” is CBS’s headline on its Iran update this morning.
The Wall Street Journal reports that speeding up traffic through the Strait, which is the reason for the U.S. strikes, hangs on an unbalanced fight against underwater risks. The Iranian regime doesn’t have to sink tankers—it must merely convince insurance companies that passage through the strait is too risky, the Journal suggests.
Faced with fresh strikes and strengthened economic sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Secretary, the Iranian regime says, gee whiz, how about we go back to that nice June ceasefire: “Iran’s [President] Pezeshkian says Tehran will reciprocate if US honors interim deal commitments” is a Jerusalem Post headline. So far, President Trump seems to be saying no more Mr. Nice Guy. And here.
Who’s winning the Iran War? Who’s losing? Wall Street Journal foreign affairs authority Walter Russell Mead confronts this question in “A Realistic Look at the Iran War.” The war isn’t as easy as President Trump expected, Mead acknowledges, but don’t assume the U.S. has already lost:
Mr. Trump seems bent on continuing the conflict, and he has reasonable grounds for maintaining his optimism. With Goldman Sachs reporting that oil exports from the Persian Gulf have recovered to about two-thirds of their prewar level, Iran has failed to create a global energy crisis. The American blockade is causing more pain to the Iranians than the regime’s attempt to close the strait is causing the U.S.
Meanwhile, as Iran’s limited and largely ineffective response to the American attacks last weekend demonstrated, Mr. Trump is still able to control the escalation ladder. Between earlier military losses and fear of retaliation, Iran appears unwilling or unable to challenge the military status quo. The president appears to believe he can keep squeezing Iran’s economy indefinitely while avoiding the two things he most fears: a global economic crisis and the use of American ground troops….
Mr. Trump’s critics are right that six months into this war, the pathway out remains obscure. But this is how war normally works. Risk and unpredictability are baked into the cake. That is a good reason to avoid unnecessary wars; it is also a reason to avoid excesses of either gloom or joy as the fortunes of war shift and turn.
More Military News. “Army Secretary submits resignation to Trump after repeated clashes with (War Secretary Pete) Hegseth,” the Washington Post announces. Axios has more on outgoing Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not warm to Driscoll as the two worked at the Department of Defense, but Driscoll’s friendship with Vice President JD Vance offered him some protection.
Two other reasons for the resignation were reportedly that Driscoll felt his “modernization initiatives were being blocked” and the “chaos” over Secretary Hegseth’s firing of senior generals. Driscoll was seen as possible campaign chairman for a JD Vance presidential campaign.
Having a Ball(room). The Supreme Court is allowing continued construction on President Trump’s ballroom:
The Supreme Court on Monday permitted President Trump to proceed with plans to build the White House ballroom.
Why it matters:The 5-4 ruling is likely the final word on the project, which can now proceed with above-ground work after it was halted while the case played out in court.
Driving the news:The majority decision noted that the justices did “not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project.”
Chief Justice John Roberts joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson to dissent. Politico reports:
Writing for the dissenters, Roberts said the project is “likely unlawful.”
“The White House is an iconic American building whose symbolism and history are wrapped up in its architecture,” Roberts wrote, adding that it is critical to “ensure that those responsible follow the rules in deciding what to tear down and what to build up at the People’s House.”
Justice Kavanaugh got the best of the Chief Justice, according to the Volokh Conspiracy.
“The Data Center Panic and U.S. Decline” is the headline over a Wall Street Journal editorial:
Can the U.S. political system meet the challenges of our rapidly changing age? The answer is far from certain, and the latest evidence for pessimism is the election-year panic over data centers.
The centers that look like large warehouses are crucial for artificial intelligence. The U.S. is in an AI competition with China, which won’t be a benevolent force if the U.S. falls behind. Without the energy and the data centers to power it, America’s safety and prosperity will be compromised….
If data centers disappeared from Loudoun County, Va.—known as Data Center Alley—homeowners would need to pay $5,800 more a year in property tax for the same government services, according to one analysis. Teachers in Louisiana’s Richland Parish this year received bonuses up to $50,000 thanks to tax revenue from Meta’s AI data center.
Data centers also generate scant pollution. Their CO2 emissions mainly stem from the natural gas plants that power them. But modern gas generators produce upward of 90% less fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide than a steel mill.
Whenever Bjorn Lomborg, who believes in climate change but calls for responses that don’t destroy us, writes anything, Ms. Must makes a beeline for it. “The Rich World’s Climate Distraction,” authored by Lomborg and Indermit Gill, shows how the World Bank and other institutions fail the poor because of misguided ideas about climate:
The past 75 years have brought the greatest improvement of human welfare in history. But over the past decade, much of that progress has stalled. This happened at the same time that the rich world shifted its attention to climate change. This isn’t a coincidence, and it has to change….
Most of humanity is still poor. For them, we should spend billions on tackling urgent, cheaply solved problems before spending trillions to nudge the thermometer in a century. Tellingly, Africans ranked climate change 31st among 34 priorities in a recent Afrobarometer survey. We must rediscover the smart, focused development solutions that transformed the world in the past 75 years—and put the best development policies first.
The usually camera-loving veteran Michigan Democrat Rep. Debbie Dingell has found a way to solve her Hasan Piker problem:
“I am done, so don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker,” Dingell said.
Little Debbie, that just won’t do. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s handling of the Piker Problem is scarcely less effective: Schumer embraced Piker, who has vowed to see that Schuler will not lead the Democratic Party in the Senate if he wins. Schumer also tiptoes around Piker’s antisemitism:
Mr. Schumer has taken great pride across his career as an opponent of antisemitism and a (less and less reliable) supporter of Israel. With Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looking over his shoulder in his 2028 re-election year, Mr. Schumer’s political career may be nearing its end. Why not publicly say Mr. Piker’s brand of antisemitism has no place in the Democratic Party and stand with some honor?
Just for the record: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who campaigned with Hasan Piker, whom he now calls “some streamer in California,” did not apologize for anything he said about a terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue. See “Abdul El-Sayed’s Non-Apology Tour” in National Review.
We read yesterday about a bombshell report that New York state AG Tish James sicced a prosecutor on President Trump even though there was no evidence. The report, writes Jonathan Turley, “exposed [James] as fighting only for revenge, not justice.”
Media & Culture. In “The Washington Post Embarrasses Itself Trying to Embarrass Me,” Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter writes about an “expose” gone wrong. … Devil Wears Nada: The Met has nixed Anna Wintour’s original choice of John Galliano, convicted of a crime and publicly antisemitic, to headline the Met Gala. … Sad News: Wendell Berry, the Kentucky writer who celebrated America’s agrarian past, has died at 92. … “Emily Wilson’s War,” the Homer translator who won popular fame because of the Christopher Nolan movie, is going to take another crack at translating Homer:
Back in 2017, Ms. Wilson announced her intention “to avoid importing contemporary types of sexism into this ancient poem, instead shining a clear light on the particular forms of sexism and patriarchy that do exist in the text.” According to her detractors, this fixation on modern and ancient misogyny led Ms. Wilson to produce a bleakly stripped-down “Odyssey” that turned Homer’s rakish hero into a conniving villain.
