“Analysis: Failed peace talks leave Trump with few options to end Iran conflict“
That’s CNN.
Note the emphasis. This is Trump’s failure. The near universal framing of the Iran campaign is that the United States is losing, somehow, and it is Iran that has the U.S. at its mercy—you know, like the iconic Black Knight above from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail who insists that he is winning despite losing his arms and legs.
You see, the side that is being throttled in a war is the one with “few options,” and the collapse of peace talks are primarily a problem for the side that is losing. Ending the war is primarily in the best interests of Iran and its people. The anti-U.S., anti-Trump propaganda being spewed by the Axis news media in their reporting on the Iran war may be the most flagrant and unforgivable yet: it isn’t just Trump that they are hurting, or Republicans. They are deliberately harming our nation while giving Iran motivation to stall as long as possible.
Next, we will be reading “Poor Iranians” essays like the Times lament for Gazans. Our news media’s objective appears to be national euthanasia.
Ethics Alarms 
The media sucks!
As far as I can tell with the political left and the media, they must be thinking that since our system of government allows someone like President Trump to be elected then the system is what needs to be scrapped so they’ll do anything to destroy that which they no longer trust.
That’s as good a theory as any.
To be fair, Democrats in general have hated the Constitution since at least as far back as, proof-that-a-PhD-doesn’t-make-you-wise, Woodrow Wilson. Surprisingly, the Democrats’ Confederate forebears, decades prior to Wilson, didn’t even hate the Constitution as they mostly replicated it when they seceded (secade? secode? did seceden? is it a weird Old English conjugation?).
Imagine being worse than Confederates… that’s hard. But Democrats have risen to the challenge.
No, the only times Democrats pay lip service to the bounds of the Constitution are when they need it as a cudgel against Conservatives…and even then, half of those times they are misconstruing the Constitution to do so.
Instapundit offered a link this morning to Rod Martin’s substack entitled: “Trump’s Hormuz Trap Snaps Shut.” Whether you believe Rod or not, I’ve seen additional analysis that suggests the ceasefire was more about realigning all the allied parties in the conflict, getting strategic support in place (such giving time for certain naval vessels to reach the Strait of Hormuz), and assessing how much damage has been done to the enemy to better prioritize the next steps. But Rod’s analysis pointing at the repositioning the USA as the global provider of secure and plentiful crude oil really seems to smack of an enormous Trump win. He’s not only torn the Iranian leadership to shreds, but now he’s getting global supply chains to move away from Iran to the US. And with a blockade in place to prevent Iranian oil from shipping, that will fill up Iranian oil storage and force Iranian oilfields to reduce extraction. It certainly seems to me that Trump has Iran over a barrel.
Ryan, thanks so much for posting that link. It’s a completely fascinating counterpoint to what so many others – from CNN to Brian Tyler Cohen to the NYT – have been suggesting.
I’ve been passing it around.
By the way, I re-read that piece today…then dove into the associated comments, where the author offered further insights. Wow!
Joel, agreed! I especially liked his last comment,
My flippant analysis of the situation:
Iran has three levers to hurt the United States. One: Harm the United States, a net exporter of petroleum, by wrecking the global oil markets and sending the price through the roof. Two: Blow up the countries where the 9/11 hijackers that attacked the United States came from. Three: make the United States use up lots of their bombs by getting their country destroyed by those bombs.