The Morning Briefing: The Price of 'Wait Them Out' Keeps Going Up for Iran

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Krensswygysc continued to wow his neighbors with scrambled egg sculptures of Florence Henderson at the monthly "Breakfast for Dinner" pinochle socials.

Just a few quick thoughts on Iran and our little, um, situation in that part of the world, then we should all probably do some light stretching. Again, international conflict fare is not my area of expertise, but I do pay attention to these hot messes. Every once in a while, the urge to weigh in overwhelms me.

The August 3 Morning Briefing headline was, "Iran War Continues to Be Whatever Anyone Wants It to Be." That remains mostly true today. Optimists, skeptics, and pessimists all seem to be finding plenty to point to in order to support their particular views. Honestly, I'm not even sure where I am on that spectrum. Is there a "What the Heck?" option somewhere out there?

The Strait of Hormuz and its level of openness remains the hot topic. As my good friend and partner in thought crime Stephen Green wrote yesterday, getting a read on that all comes down to who you're talking to and how they're defining "open" at the moment. The way Stephen describes it — or at least the way I read it — is that one can eventually get whichever answer one wants. When I wrote the column at the beginning of the month I was hoping that things might have gotten more objectively clear at this point. Oh well.

An interesting upbeat media voice on the subject emerged yesterday. This is from my friend and HotAir colleague John Sexton:

It feels like it's not very often that the NY Times says something positive about an operation taking place under the direction of President Trump. But today they did just that with a story that notes an ongoing operation to help ships full of oil clear the Strait of Hormuz which is working, though obviously the total number of ships is still down compared to the situation prior to the war.

That is very strange, indeed. I've written on more than one occasion that there are two wars going on in the region: the actual war, and whatever the hell it is that The New York Times is writing about. There have been days when it seemed as if the Times were getting editorial directives from Tehran. Given the overwhelmingly negative tone of most of the Times' reportage on this war, anything positive almost feels like cheerleading for President Trump. That, or it's a set-up.

As John says in his conclusion, Iran is trying to "wait it out" and claim victory if any semblance of the regime survives. The waiting game can get rather expensive, though. Mr. Green links to an article that says that the US Navy blockade has delivered a near-fatal blow to Iran's oil exports and could "destabilize" the regime. Then there's this news from Ben Smith at our sister site RedState:

Iran's regime fired two ballistic missiles toward shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday. The United Arab Emirates has had enough. Abu Dhabi responded by severing every trade, commercial, and financial transaction with the terror state, effective immediately.
Roughly $28 billion in annual commerce is now gone. The UAE was Iran's single largest source of imports, a lifeline the mullahs just torched with their own missiles.
UAE Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Afra Al Hameli made it official Wednesday. No end date. No conditions. Just a hard stop tied to Iran's escalating aggression.

The Iranian Religion of Peace clerics were a little too violent while waiting and it's got them in a bit of a pickle. There is almost no oil money coming in and now there won't be much to buy with it even if there were. That'll make for a cranky citizenry. Civil unrest in Iran never plays out the way we want it to, but maybe change is coming.

I'll be hanging out somewhere between the skeptics and the optimists for a couple of weeks.

Contributions to the Mailbag of Magnificence can be sent to kruisermb@gmail.com

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The Mailbag of Magnificence

As always, the faithful rallied. Timothy L. will start things off today:

Good morning Stephen, I and I'm sure that many other readers of your material are greatly appreciative for both the quality and impressive volume that you present to us. In addition to "The Morning Briefing" along with "The Mailbag of Magnificence" commentary we are also able to enjoy other articles of a conservative nature quite frequently. Anyone who writes with such consistent quality and high output is bound to make an occasional mistake. Heck I'm sure that a nitpicker could find something wrong grammatically or otherwise with this statement of mine to you this morning. I stand with you against the critics!

Well, thank you for that support. I think that the likelihood of a mistake always increases after a few days of rest, relaxation, and complete avoidance of anything work-related. I try to keep mine limited to typos, but I will occasionally trip over something bigger. It's never a mistake when I call socialists "commies," though.

Dan M. writes:

Regarding: "I take ONE day off and the Mailbag gets a little light. There were a few from last week that I might get to tomorrow, but the only note from this week was someone complaining about an error I made. Has the magic gone away for good? I hope not." May we call you Captain? Because you just reminded me of the funniest punchline I ever read (though allegedly a true story): "No ma'am, Cap'm Goldstein NEVER make no mistake!"

I am unfamiliar with that punchline, but I'm glad I triggered the memory.

Jerome F. weighs in on the Dems' commie uprising:

Hey Mr. Kruiser, How far out are we from Axios running a piece with the headline “Communism Has Always Been Great, and Here’s Why”. Or maybe I missed it and they already have. Commies suck.

I do think that the "thirst trap" garbage was a big step in that direction for Axios. The MSM is either going to have to start a coordinated demonization of the Democratic Socialists of America, or publicly go full hammer and sickle. The baby Stalins might not be primed for a takeover just yet. We'll know soon.

This is from Friend of the Briefing Sheryl V-R in Georgia:

Not so much for public consumption but in my case, been sitting in trauma care since last Monday when the Rescue Mutt tripped the hub and gave him a brain bleed, 4 days before he was supposed to have stents for heart blockages. It's always something, my little Roseanne Rosannadana. Keep the briefing coming, Herr K - it's how we make it thru the week even if we're not writing in.

Yikes. So sorry to hear that. I hope he's getting better. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, and my faith in the sustainability of the Mailbag grows stronger every day.

A good point from Mark R. in Tennessee:

I myself am a recovering stand up comedian from years ago but quit when I saw my future playing cruise ships in my late 50s and traveling non stop. The problem we face as a country now politically stems from the unhinged and unbalanced thinking that derives from a secular people that have lost true faith in God. God set rules for us not to be mean, but to give guidelines on behavior that produces a better life. To the left, secularism IS their god. The left wants to be their own god, determining gender, normalizing depravity in the name of science, rebelling against the very things that produce a stable society. It’s all spiritual wrapped in a political argument. Morning Brief is the only thing in my inbox that is read daily even though I subscribe to a few paid newsletters. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for being a stalwart regular. I've been saying much the same thing about the secular leftists for a long time. Their lack of real faith is at the core of all they do that is so harmful to the continued existence of the Republic. There's a great book by Archbishop Charles Chaput titled, Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World. Yes, its target audience is Catholics, but Archbishop Chaput begins with some fantastic thoughts on the Christian principles and thought that were so important to the founding of this country. A couple of my non-Catholic conservative friends have read it and loved it.

Oh, I've only ever done two cruise ship gigs, both a long time ago. I had a new baby and the money was good. Not my normal vibe, but they came in handy at the time.

Jonathan S. (another Friend of the Briefing) will finish things up today:

You asked (philosophically?) if the magic had gone away for good. No. But please allow me to expand just a little (like foam): First, is it really fair to send comments to _you_ when Kevin Downey or anyone else fills in or "pinch-hits" for you? It's true, they keep the overall flavor going and, I confess, and deny not, but confess that there are times when it's hard to tell it's NOT you writing TDB unless I check the byline. Kevin's work deserves comments and appreciation, but is it proper to send items about him to you? In other words, we'd like to give credit and comments, but I didn't see where Kevin, say, has his own "send me your comments". Believe me, it's great that you have a cadre of friends who can step in, adding humor and avoiding hubris. In a word, it's the wizard, not the magic. (PS—thanks for the promotion to Friend of the Briefing!)

I like to think of the Mailbag as an ongoing conversation that isn't just about responses to a specific day or what I wrote. Also, when I made that remark, I'd been back for a day and there was just the one email.

Thanks to all who stepped up! Yes, Sharon, I read and enjoyed all 72 of your emails!

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