On February 28, the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes across Iran. Among the first sites hit was a girls’ elementary school in Minab. The building was destroyed. Nearly 170 children were killed there. A US military investigation, now facing photographic evidence of a US missile, is ongoing. There is a way of reading the current [...]
President Trump is already trying to throw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth under the bus for the fruitless war on Iran.“I called Pete, I called General Caine, I called a lot of our great people … and I said, ‘Let’s talk. We got a problem in the Middle East. We have a country … that for 47 years has been a purveyor of terror. And they’re very close to having a nuclear weapon. We can keep going and get that 50,000 up to 55 and 60, there’s no end. Or we could take a stop and make a little journey into the Middle East, and eliminate a big problem,’” Trump said Monday at an event in Memphis.“Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up,” Trump continued. “And you said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”Trump blames Hegseth for the war: "Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. You said, 'Let's do it.'" pic.twitter.com/QBGeFuhM1M— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2026“Hegseth about to give his next briefing from under the bus,” liberal podcaster Jon Favreau wrote on X.This quick comment is magnified by the chaos of Monday morning, which saw Trump announcing a five-day pause on bombing Iranian energy sites while claiming that he was close to a deal with the Iranian government. The Iranian government then denied speaking to him in any capacity at all, sparking rumors that Trump was engaging in market manipulation. And if the war is going as badly as it appears to be, Hegseth may be in trouble.
In Beirut, we start our days with the latest litany of places and people hit overnight, a deluge of stories and images: buildings targeted, cars struck on highways, families wiped out. Evacuation orders drop at 11 p.m., then midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m.—then the bombing follows and [...]