The Friday Brief, March 6, 2026
The Easy Part Is Over
Inside
Iran: The Easy Part Is Over
Macron’s Nukes
Texas: The Paxton-Trump Divorce
The Pardon Amendment
Pam Bondi’s Bar Fight
Miami Nazis? I’m Shocked, Shocked!
Gates Goes Nuclear
Andrew Tate Detained
Kristi Noem and the Law of ETTD
The Big Picture
In Iran, The Easy Part Is Over
There is a seduction in the opening notes of a war, a Wagnerian swell that convinces the men in the air-conditioned situation rooms that they are masters of the universe.
Washington’s air practically crackles with the testosterone of in-the-know young, fistbumping Pentagon and White House operators, civilian and military, living vicariously as braver men and women on the ground, at sea, and in the air take the fight to the enemy.
For the last six days, the digital maps have glowed with the satisfying images and confident descriptions of degraded capabilities and decapitating strikes. We have watched the high-definition feeds of the Khojir Missile Production Complex turning into a very expensive charcoal briquette. We have counted the Iranian hulls slipping beneath the wine-dark sea of the Persian Gulf.
The pundits, many of whom couldn’t find Tehran on a map if you promised them a lifetime supply of the drug of their choice, are already declaring victory. They see an 86% drop in Iranian missile launches and think they’re watching the series finale.
They are high on the fumes of kinetic success, intoxicated by the footage of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s compound being ventilated by precision munitions.
They are wrong.
In the grim calculus of Middle Eastern conflict, we have just finished the Easy Part.
