As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, isn’t it time we learned the lessons of history? From Vietnam to 9/11, the War on Terror, and now Iran, America never seems to understand what ought to be obvious conclusions about its actions…
Page B1From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 31 August 2026
America says it's out of forever wars, then posts video of Kharg Island blown to smithereens
As it ran on the front
RESTRAINT, POST-9/11 VINTAGE, DIES AGAIN
Born in the ashes of 2003, when a nation learned the word 'quagmire' the hard way, American foreign-policy restraint has died for what its own coverage counts as at least the second time. It was twenty-two years old.…
…(cont) It is survived by a long list of relatives who never quite learned its lessons: the fiscal commission that keeps meeting about the forty-trillion-dollar bill for the first mistake; the campaign trail where 'done apologizing' now doubles as a foreign-policy platform; and the video, posted by the President of the United States himself, of Kharg Island being blown to smithereens, so described, on his own account.
It was preceded in death by patience, by inspectors, by the notion that a president might wait on Congress before an island goes up. The obituary that ran when restraint first died, back in 2003, said much the same thing this one says now — different island, different decade, same speedrun, this time with better production values. The Washington Examiner, no bunk artist itself on matters of restraint, was the one to notice: Trump just speedran Bush's biggest mistake. That takes a certain kind of paper to print about a president it otherwise favors.
Restraint's final public act was a stated policy of being 'out of money, out of forever wars,' which this obituarist is required to note ran in the same publication, the same week, as a video of an island in the Persian Gulf on fire, posted for applause. The malarkey of pairing those two sentences is not this desk's to invent — it is simply what ran, in order, under two different headlines from the same house.
There was no service. There is rarely a service for restraint; it tends to get buried quickly, before anyone can ask who signed off on the funeral, or the strike.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that Congress hold the war-powers vote the Constitution already assigns it, on Iran, in public, on the record, before the next island goes up.
“You promise no more forever wars, then you post the video of blowing up an island like it's a highlight reel. That's not restraint, that's marketing with a body count. And the same paper counting the forty-trillion-dollar bill from the first mistake is cheering the second one.”
“This is deterrence, plain and simple — a strong America doesn't apologize, doesn't explain itself, doesn't — wait, did I just say we're out of forever wars in the same breath as the video? That's not a contradiction, that's — okay, that's a contradiction.”
The receipts
The Pentagon has failed its audit eight years running - the only major federal agency never to pass one Military Times, 19 December 2025
America is out of money, out of forever wars, and done apologizingIn 1776, a congress of colonials declared they had had enough of kings and priests claiming divine right over their lives. Rights come from the Creator, governments exist by consent, and their purpose is to secure life, liberty, and the…
On Sunday afternoon, the United States launched strikes against Iran on Laruck Island. On Sunday night, President Donald Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account with the caption “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens.” The video…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.