Endless War? And Other Issues

March 20/21, 2026

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

George Orwell “1984”

Yesterday Chuck Norris died. Born on March 10, 1940, he’d been 86 for just 9 days. He had a long and successful life and his death was not a tragedy. But sitting here just under a month and a half before my 87th birthday I can only think, “Too young.”

Between yesterday and today, a lot has happened. Perhaps most importantly, Donald John is contemplating taking Kharg Island, the major Iranian oil depot, in order to pressure the Iranian regime to accept his terms for ending the war he started. That means putting troops — probably Marines — in harm’s way. Everybody from government officials to television talking heads likes to use the phrase, “Boots on the ground.” It’s convenient. But it depersonalizes the individual troops and makes it easier to send them to kill and be killed. What is being contemplated is nothing more or less than the Vietnamization of the Iran war. What does THAT mean? Escalation. We may be able to take Kharg Island with a force of around 15,000 or so — a Marine expeditionary force of 2,500 won’t do it. But then the island would have to be defended and 15,000 troops won’t do it. With an Iranian Revolutionary Guard force of about 200,000, it will take between 350 and 500,000 troops to defeat them. And, like in Vietnam, we can win every battle and still lose the war if the Iranian theocratic regime survives. Trump is now in a trap of his own making. The same trap that LBJ built and put himself into as the Iranians launched more drones across the Middle East doing sufficient damage to Qatar’s LNG infrastructure to take 5 years to repair thus giving the lie to the false message that things will immediately bounce back to normal when the war is over and that the increase in gasoline prices is just a blip. In response, the Trump administration has removed the sanctions on Iranian oil already on ships at sea. Thus we free our friends to be able to buy oil from the country we’re at war with providing them the financial wherewithal to buy munitions from Russia and/or China or anyone else who will sell them arms. Just as we’ve lifted sanctions on Russian oil at sea providing Putin with the money he needs to continue his war of aggression against Ukraine.

All in a desperate effort to reduce the cost of oil hits over $98/barrel on the U.S. spot market and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes the week at below 45,600. Whither Pam Bondi’s Dow 50,000 now?

In other news, John Thune is going to have the U.S. Senate working on the SAVE America Act the better to disenfranchise those who are likely to vote Democratic in the 2026 midterm and 2028 presidential elections. And after Pam Bondi’s stunt the other day in which she refused to commit to honoring the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena, the Republican committee members are contemplating quashing the subpoena. Thus democracy dies. One legislative surrender after another.

Not if I can help it.