To All.
Good Monday Morning March 9 2026.
I hope that you all had a good weekend. The weather was wonderful here.. Today will be cooler and has a small chance of rain.
Good session at the VA this morning for my back..
There is a long article at the end that you might find interesting….skip
Warm Regards,
skip
HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 94 H-Grams.
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History March 9
1847 An Army-Navy force begins the siege of Veracruz, Mexico. Approximately 12,000 U.S. troops land on the beaches, along with their horses, mules, artillery, and supplies. Veracruz surrenders March 29, and the forces make their way to Mexico City.
1862 In the first battle between ironclads, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia engage in close combat in Hampton Roads, Va. Neither side could claim victory, but it eventually ends the era of wooden ships.
1919 The first flight from a battleship platform is made by Lt. Cmdr. Edward O. McDonnell in a Sopwith Camel from turret No. 2 of USS Texas (BB 35) while anchored at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
1944 USS Lapon (SS 260), while pursuing a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, sank two freighters and survived a counterattack by Japanese gunboat.
1952 USS Samuel N. Moore (DD 747) and HMS Morecambe Bay silence enemy shore batteries firing at USS Merganser (AMS-26) near Songjin, Korea.
1991 USS Cowpens (CG 63) is commissioned in Charleston, S.C. The 17th of her 27-ship Ticonderoga-class of guided-missile cruisers, Cowpens.
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Today in World History: March 9
1617 The Treaty of Stolbovo ends the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.
1734 The Russians take Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.
1788 Connecticut becomes the 5th state.
1796 Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais in Paris, France.
1812 Swedish Pomerania is seized by Napoleon.
1820 Congress passes the Land Act, paving the way for westward expansion.
1839 The French Academy of Science announces the Daguerreotype photo process.
1841 The rebel slaves who seized a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, in 1839 are freed by the Supreme Court despite Spanish demands for extradition.
1862 The first and last battle between the ironclads U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia ends in a draw.
1864 General Ulysses Grant is appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
1911 The funding for five new battleships is added to the British military defense budget.
1915 The Germans take Grodno on the Eastern Front.
1916 Mexican bandit Pancho Villa leads 1,500 horsemen on a raid of Columbus, N.M. killing 17 U.S. soldiers and citizens.
1932 Eamon De Valera is elected president of the Irish Free State and pledges to abolish all loyalty to the British Crown.
1936 The German press warns that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections will be arrested.
1939 Czech President Emil Hacha ousts pro-German Joseph Tiso as the Premier of Slovakia in order to preserve Czech unity.
1940 Britain frees captured Italian coal ships on the eve of German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop's visit to Rome.
1956 British authorities arrest and deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus. He is accused of supporting terrorists.
1957 Egyptian leader Nasser bars U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.
1959 The Barbie doll is unveiled at a toy fair in New York City.
1964 The first Ford Mustang rolls off the Ford assembly line.
1967 Svetlana Alliluyeva, Josef Stalin's daughter defects to the United States.
1968 General William Westmoreland asks for 206,000 more troops in Vietnam.
1975 Iraq launches an offensive against the rebellious Kurds.
1986 Navy divers find the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.
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Monday Morning Humor thanks to Al
. The Military Aviators (I knew)...
• As seen by himself--An incredibly intelligent, tall, handsome, innovative, and highly trained professional killer, idol to countless females, and gentleman adventurer, who wears a star sapphire ring, carries a hair-trigger .45 automatic in a specially designed, hand-made quick draw holster along with his trusty survival knife, who is always on time thanks to his ability to obtain immediate transportation and the reliability of his Rolex watch.
• As seen by his wife--A disreputable member of the family who comes home once a year all bruised up, driving a stolen jeep up to the back door carrying a B-4 bag full of dirty laundry, wearing a stained flight suit, smelling of stale booze and JP-5, wearing a huge watch, a fake ring, and that damn ugly beat-up pistol in that stupid holster, who will three months later go out the front door, thankfully for another year.
• As seen by his squadron commander--A fine specimen of a drunken, brawling, jeep stealing, woman corrupting liar, with a star sapphire ring, fantastically accurate Rolex watch, an unauthorized .45 in a non-regulation shoulder holster, and trusty survival knife.
• As seen by wing headquarters--The embodiment of a drunken, brawling, jeep stealing, woman corrupting, lying, zipper-suited sun god, with a ring, a proscribed 1911A1 .45 in a non-regulation shoulder holster, a Rolex watch, who for some reason carries a survival knife.
• As seen by the DoD--An overpaid, rule-ignoring, over-ranked tax burden, who is unfortunately totally indispensable simply because he has volunteered to go anywhere, and do anything, at any time, only so long as he can booze it up, brawl, steal jeeps, corrupt women, lie, and wear a star sapphire ring, Rolex watch, and carry an obsolete hand gun and a survival knife.
• As seen by the enemy--The implacable face of death!
A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off.
The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, 'watch this!' and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?
The C-130 pilot said, "That was impressive, but watch this!"
The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said: "What did you think of that?"
Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, "What the heck did you do?"
The C-130 pilot chuckled. "I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, took a leak, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll."
The moral of the story is...When you are young and foolish -speed and flash may seem a good thing!
When you get older and smarter -comfort and dull is not such a bad thing!
Fighter Pilots Heaven
• Everybody's a lieutenant, except God... He is an Admiral!
• You only come to work when you are going to fly.
• You fly three times a day, if you wish, except on Friday.
• You never run out of gas.
• You never run out of ammo.
• Your missions are one hour long (or longer if you desire) and no briefings are ever required.
• Sorties are air-to-air or air-to-ground, your choice.
• You shoot the guns on every mission.
• There are no check rides.
• It is always VFR, and there are never any ATC delays.
• You can fly out of the MOA and down to 10 feet AGL...if you want.
• There are no "over G's."
• You always fly overhead landing patterns with initial approach at 20 feet, then break left.
• You can go cross-country anytime you desire...the further the better.
• There are no ORIs.
• There are no additional duties.
• Friday Happy Hour is mandatory.
• There are no flight surgeons.
• There are no staff jobs.
• "Happy Hour" begins at 1400 and lasts until 0200+.
• The bartenders are all friendly blondes.
• Beer is free, but whiskey costs a nickel.
• The girls are all friendly and each aviator is allowed three...and they all look like Sydney Sweeney.
• Music is free on the jukebox.
• You never lose your room key and your buddies never leave you stranded.
• The sun always shines, and you can put your hat in your pants pocket.
• Flight suits are allowed in the Officers Club at all times.
• The exchange always has every item you ask for, most being free.
• There are never any crosswind landings, and the runways are always dry.
• Control tower flybys for wheels-up checks can be made at 600 kts.
• There are never any noise complaints.
• Full afterburner climbs over your house are encouraged.
• Fitness reports always contain the statement, "Outstanding Officer."
• Functions requiring mess dress attire never occur.
• All air traffic controllers are friendly and always provide priority handling.
• The airplanes never break.
• "Ace" status is conferred upon all aviators entering Heaven...
And you never have to grow up!
A young Marine and his commanding officer board a train headed through the mountains of Switzerland. They can find no place to sit except for two seats right across the aisle from a young woman and her grandmother.
After a while, it is obvious that the young woman and the young soldier are interested in each other because they are giving each other "looks."
Soon, the train passes into a tunnel and it is pitch black. There is a sound of the smack of a kiss, followed by the sound of the smack of a slap. When the train emerges from the tunnel, the four sit there without saying a word.
The grandmother is thinking to herself: "It was very brash for that young soldier to kiss my granddaughter, but I'm glad she slapped him."
The commanding officer is setting there thinking: "I didn't know the young Marine was brave enough to kiss the girl, but I sure wish she hadn't missed him when she slapped and hit me!"
The young woman was sitting and thinking: "I'm glad the soldier kissed me, but I wish my grandmother had not slapped him!"
The young Marine sat there with a satisfied smile on his face, thinking to himself: "Life is good. When does a fellow have the chance to kiss a beautiful girl and slap his commanding officer, all at the same time?"
Mr. and Mrs. Braithwaite Backus,
Bald Buzzard Ridge
Mountainville, RFD 2, Kentucky
Dear Ma and Pa:
Am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Army beats working for Old Man Minch a mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all the places are filled.
I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. ( ! ) but am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things -- no hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. You got to shave, but it is not bad in warm water.
Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, beef, ham steak, fried eggplant, pie and regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit between two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon, when you get fed.
It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route marches," which, the Sgt. says, are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my place to tell him different. A "routine march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys all get sore feet and we ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat.
The Sgt. is like a schoolteacher. He nags some. The Capt. is like the school board. Cols. and Gens. just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.
This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bull's-eye is near as big as a chipmunk and don't move. And it ain't shooting at you, like the Higsett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. you don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellows get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving son,
Zeb
P.S. Speaking of shooting, enclosed is $200 for the barn roof and ma's teeth. The city boys shoot craps, but not very good. - Z.
Why airplanes are easier to live with than women:
• Airplanes usually kill you quickly; a woman takes her time.
• Airplanes can be turned on by a flick of a switch.
• Airplanes don't get mad if you do a "touch and go."
• Airplanes don't object to a pre-flight inspection.
• Airplanes come with a manual to explain their operation.
• Airplanes have strict weight and balance limitations.
• Airplanes don't come with in-laws.
• Airplanes don't care about how many other airplanes you've flown before.
• Airplanes don't mind if you look at other airplanes.
• Airplanes don't mind if you buy airplane magazines.
• Airplanes don't comment on your piloting skills.
• Airplanes don't whine unless something is really wrong.
• However, when airplanes go quiet, just like women, it's usually not good.
Wisdom…from the military
• "A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit." - Army's magazine of preventive maintenance.
• "Aim towards the enemy." - Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher
• "When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend. - U.S. Marine Corps
• "Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground." - USAF Ammo Troop
• "If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal
• "It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." - U.S. Air Force Manual
• "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." - General Macarthur
• "Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo." - Infantry Journal
• "Tracers work both ways." - U.S. Army Ordnance
• "Five second fuses only last three seconds." - Infantry Journal
• "Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid." - David Hackworth
• "If your attack is going too well, you're walking into an ambush." - Infantry Journal
• "No combat-ready unit has ever passed inspection." - Joe Gay
• "Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once."
• "Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." - Unknown Marine Recruit
• "Don't draw fire; it irritates the people around you." - Your Buddies
• "If you see a bomb technician running, follow him." - USAF Ammo Troop
• "The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire."
• "Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky." - From an old carrier sailor
• "If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe."
• "When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash."
• "Without ammunition, the USAF would be just another expensive flying club."
• "What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, .... The pilot dies."
• "Never trade luck for skill."
• The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" And "Oh S...!"
• "Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight."
• "A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication."
• "Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!"
• "Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it."
• "If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to."
• "You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal."
• "Flying is best described as hours and hours of boredom, interrupted by moments of stark terror" - sign outside of Naval Aviator classroom.
For those who were not in the Navy, see what you missed!
How to simulate being in the Navy.
For those of us that were, relive the good old days.
• Buy a dumpster, paint it gray inside and out, and live in it for six months. (NOTE: For submariners-black outside pea green inside)
• Run all the pipes and wires in your house exposed on the walls.
• Repaint your entire house every month.
• Renovate your bathroom. Build a wall across the middle of the bathtub and move the shower head to chest level. When you take showers, make sure you turn off the water while you soap down.
• Put lube oil in your humidifier and set it on high.
• Once a week, blow air up your chimney, with a leaf blower and let the wind carry the soot onto your neighbor's house. Ignore his complaints.
• Once a month, take all major appliances apart and reassemble them.
• Raise the thresholds and lower the headers of your front and back doors so that you either trip or bang your head every time you pass through them.
• Disassemble and inspect your lawnmower every week.
• On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, turn your water heater temperature up to 200 degrees. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, turn the water heater off. On Saturdays and Sundays tell your family they use too much water, so no bathing will be allowed.
• Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling, so you can't turn over without getting out and then getting back in.
• Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Have your spouse whip open the curtain about 3 hours after you go to sleep, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and say "Sorry, wrong rack."
• Make your family qualify to operate each appliance in your house- dishwasher operator, blender technician, etc. Re-qualify every 6 months.
• Have your neighbor come over each day at 0500, blow a whistle so loud Helen Keller could hear it, and shout "Reveille, reveille, all hands heave out and trice up."
• 15.. Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in your back yard at 0600 while she reads it to you.
• Submit a request chit to your father-in-law requesting permission to leave your house before 1500...in triplicate.
• Empty all the garbage bins in your house and sweep the driveway three times a day, whether it needs it or not. "Now sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms, give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft, empty all shit cans and butt kits!"
• Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, read your magazines, and randomly lose every 5th item before delivering the rest.
• Watch no TV except for movies played in the middle of the night Have your family vote on which movie to watch, then show a different one--the same one every night.
• When your children are in bed, run into their room with a megaphone shouting "Now general quarters, general quarters! All hands man your battle stations!"
• Make your family's menu a week ahead of time without consulting the pantry or refrigerator.
• Post a menu on the kitchen door informing your family that they are having steak for dinner. Then make them wait in line for an hour. When they finally get to the kitchen, tell them you are out of steak, but they can have dried ham or hot dogs. Repeat daily until they ignore the menu and just ask for hot dogs.
• Bake a cake. Prop up one side of the pan so the cake bakes unevenly. Spread icing real thick to level it off.
• Get up every night around midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread.. (mid rats)
• Set your alarm clock to go off at random during the night. At the alarm, jump up and dress as fast as you can, making sure to button your top shirt button and tuck your pants into your socks. Run out into the backyard, uncoil the garden hose and put out a simulated fire.
• Every week or so, throw your cat or dog into the pool and shout.... "Man overboard, port side!" Rate your family members on how fast they respond.
• Put the headphones from your stereo on your head, but don't plug them in. Hang a paper cup around your neck on a string. Stand in front of the stove, and speak into the paper cup, "Stove manned and ready." After an hour or so, speak into the cup again "Stove secured." Roll up the headphones and paper cup and stow them in a shoe box.
• Make your family turn out all the lights and go to bed at 10 p.m. "Now taps, taps! Lights out! Maintain silence throughout the ship!" Then immediately have an 18-wheeler crash into your house. (For aircraft carrier sailors.)
• Build a fire in a trash can in your garage. Loudly announce to your family, "This is a drill, this is a drill! Fire in hangar bay one!"
• Place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have your family stand in front of the podium for 4-hour intervals. (Best done when the weather is worst. January is a good time.)
• Next time there's a bad thunderstorm in your area, find the biggest horse you can, put a two-inch mattress on his back, strap yourself to it and turn him loose in a barn for six hours. Then get up and go to work.
• For former engineers: bring your lawn mower into the living room, and run it all day long.
• Make coffee using eighteen scoops of budget priced coffee grounds per pot, and let the pot simmer for 5 hours before drinking.
• Have someone under the age of ten give you a haircut with sheep shears.
• Sew the back pockets of your jeans onto the front.
• Add 1/3 cup of diesel fuel to the laundry.
• Take hourly readings on your electric and water meters.
• Every couple of weeks, dress up in your best clothes and go to the scummiest part of town. Find the most run down, trashiest bar and drink beer until you are hammered. Then walk all the way home.
• Lock yourself and your family in the house for six weeks. Tell them that at the end of the 6th week you'll take them to Disney World for liberty. At the end of the 6th week, inform them the trip to Disney World has been canceled because they need to get ready for an inspection, and it will be another week before they can leave the house.
The Navy was like another planet with its own languages, customs, and rules. If you accepted and trained, then someday what seemed like insanity became genius and you wondered why anyone would live their life any differently.
My greatest respect and gratitude to the men and women who serve honorably,
Al
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Thanks to the Bear and Dan Heller. We will always have the url for you to search items in Rolling Thunder
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …
. rollingthunderremembered.com .
.
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..March 9 . .
March 9: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2148
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
The U.S. President never had a "Big Red Phone" during the Cold War.
If you've seen a Cold War thriller or two, you've likely spotted the "Big Red Phone," a rotary device connected from the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., to Red Square in Moscow, to be used in the event of a nuclear crisis. Although no physical red phone existed, the concept of a Moscow-Washington hotline is very real. After the nearly disastrous events of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, government officials decided that it'd be a good idea to have more seamless communication between the leaders of the world's two nuclear superpowers. The first hotline was actually a teletype machine that became operational on August 30, 1963, with the uninspiring yet practical message: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890." (The odd phrase was used because it contains every letter in the alphabet.) The machine was never used to avert nuclear disasters, though a couple of Presidents took advantage of the direct line of communication to discuss various world events, like the Six-Day War in Israel in 1967 and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. A fax machine was added to the hotline in 1986. In 2008, messages could finally be sent over secure email. But in its 60 years of existence, a telephone was never part of the equation.
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From the List archives
Thanks to Dick
Fwd: From a friend.
VERY INTERESTING…..
Subject: Dark Horse Reunion
From a former Peoples Express pilot who flew in the Navy. It will be hard to watch by some, but it proves that war is hell! After all is said and done, it turns out that Ho Chi Mihn did not want Communism either! What a terrible waste of American and Vietnamese lives!
Some of you saw much of this first hand and this will ring greatly with the memories of your time there. Others of us could have been sent but the military seemed to continue to fight with the troops and equipment there so all we did was watch, read and listen--and keep track of friends we knew who were not coming back.
This item is terrific in showing that our enemy were in many ways not that much different then ourselves.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/168246685
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From the Archives
Thanks to Mugs for passing this one to us. It is worth remembering.
March 8 2023
Cher Subscribers,
I'm back.
The surgery for the spinal stenosis went extremely well, and I just had to spend a single night in the terrific Jupiter Medical Center for observation.
While this newsletter will be short, I hope to resume full coverage in a couple days.
Happy Immutable Characteristic Month!
By: Judd Garrett
Objectivity is the Objective
March 5, 2023
Wednesday was the start of March and the beginning of Women's History month. It came after February, which is Black History Month, and before April, which is Arab-American heritage month. Throughout the year, there is also an Asian-American Pacific-Islander Heritage Month, a Haitian Heritage Month, a Jewish-American History Month, a Caribbean-American Heritage Month, LGBT Pride Month, and many others. There is a Black Catholic History month, but not a Catholic History month. At this point, some people will object to all these different groups having their own months while there is never a Men's History Month or a White History Month. Why do women have a history month, but men don't? Why does every other ethnic group have a history month, but white people don't?
Why are the accomplishments and achievements of white people and of men being slighted, and not appreciated with a specified month in their honor? It feels like a slap in the face, an attempt to disrespect members of those two groups. White men are not allowed to be acknowledged for their accomplishments because they have been designated for cancelation. It is curious that every white man is continually reminded of and held accountable for every bad thing that white men have ever done in history, but at the same time, white men are not supposed to acknowledge any good that any white man has ever done. Ignore all the good and focus solely on the bad. That's healthy for society.
But the more I think about it, the more I go back to the way I thought when I first heard of the idea of a month honoring a specific group of people. It is stupid. It is pandering. It is divisive. It is the exact opposite of healing and unifying. These months encourage people to view themselves based on their gender or their ethnicity or the color of their skin, thinking of themselves in a way that is the exact opposite of what is healthy for themselves and best for society. We are all individuals. We are all unique unto ourselves. By lumping us into specific groups by criteria that do not or should not define us, is confining, putting us into a box.
If some white person or some man did something great, that is not a reflection on me, as a white male. It is a reflection of him. I do not get credit for what that white man did simply because I have the same skin color or the same sexual chromosomes. It doesn't work that way. Viewing the accomplishment as a reflection on ourselves, compels us to look at ourselves as a group and not as an individual. It removes individual accomplishment and accountability from the self, in favor of the group. It becomes dangerous and divisive. But these months are not designed to honor great accomplishments or great people; they are designed to promote the preferred group over other groups. The person and the accomplishment are only important because they do just that.
If we are going to identify with a group outside the self, it is most inclusive to identify with the entirety of the human race. The great accomplishments of all human beings show what we all are capable of doing, not just the accomplishments of people within our particular group. Identifying with the human race is expansive; identifying with one specific race or gender or group is restrictive. You only serve to limit yourself if you define yourself by these outward characteristics that define nothing about who you are to your core.
In the movie, First Man, which chronicles the United States astronauts landing on the moon, the director, Damien Chazelle, made the controversial decision not to show the astronauts planting the United States flag on the moon. Actor Ryan Gosling, who played Neil Armstrong in the movie, defended that decision by saying, the movie "celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind'." It was an accomplishment of humanity, not just of one country, one race, or one gender.
So, America and white men cannot specifically be celebrated for their accomplishments, they have to be celebrated as accomplishments for all mankind. Yet at the same time, when anyone in any of the other groups ever achieves anything, even if the feat had been accomplished decades prior, they are celebrated. The first woman to… the first black person to… the first Asian to… Just being the first from your preferred group to do anything that has been done for years, becomes the accomplishment itself.
We can't acknowledge walking on the moon as a white man's accomplishment or an American accomplishment, it must be framed as a human accomplishment. Which is fine. But when a black astronaut or a woman astronaut walks on the moon, it will be lauded as an accomplishment for black people or an accomplishment for women, even though, it had been accomplished over a half-century ago. When the criterion for an accomplishment is defined by the race or the gender of the person, then the true accomplishment becomes merely being a member of that specific race or gender. The actual feat is secondary to the membership to one of those specific groups, and the individual self-identity becomes lost and overshadowed by the group identity.
Maybe the reason why so many people are having identity crises these days is that people in our society are being forced to create their identities in things that are beyond their core self, based on immutable characteristics that define their group identity. But there is no racial identity, there is no gender identity. Those things do not exist. They are creations of the mind. You have a race and a gender, but your race and gender do not define who you are. They do not create your identity. Who you are as an individual defines what your identity is.
One of the charges of racism that is sometimes levied against white people is that "not all black people look alike." Which is absolutely correct. But not all black people think alike, not all white people think alike, not all women think alike, and not all men think alike. Not all black people, white people, men and women act alike either or have the same morality, or core beliefs. There is a diversity within the society-defined diversity groups that is so much more nuanced, profound, and determinative that it transcends the diversity groups themselves.
Is an act of courage or grace more or less profound based on which group the person committing the act belonged to? Why can't a white man be inspired by an accomplishment of a black woman or a black woman inspired by an accomplishment of a white man? Can't we all be inspired by an accomplishment of another human being by the mere fact that we share a common humanity, or do differences in ethnicity, race, or gender negate our human connection? This push for inclusivity is actually exclusive. The real racists and the real sexists are the ones who focus on and define the world based primarily on race and sex, and they are the ones who came up with these Group Identity History Months so that everyone would define themselves and the world by race and gender which only serves to divide us even further apart.
If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.
Plato
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This Day in U S Military History
9 March
1938 – Comedian Bob Hope makes his first film appearance, singing "Thanks for the Memories" in The Big Broadcast of 1938. Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England, in 1903 and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, at age four. The son of a stonemason and a former concert singer, Hope worked as a newsboy, a soda jerk, a shoe salesman, and a boxer (under the name "Packy East") in his teens. Later, he joined the vaudeville circuit with a song-and-dance routine, making his debut in 1924 in a Fatty Arbuckle revue. Hope began appearing in comedy shorts in the 1930s. He appeared on Broadway for the first time in 1933 and made his radio debut in 1935 as a cast member of The Intimate Revue. In 1938, he was picked to star in The Big Broadcast. Since he had already committed to a radio contract in New York at the same time, he moved to Hollywood to film the movie, and delivered his radio monologues via a long-distance wire hook-up to the New York studio. Hope's popularity grew in 1939 with the film Cat and the Canary. In 1940, he co-starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in the Road to Singapore, the first of seven Road movies he made with Crosby and Lamour. In most of the years between 1941 and 1953, Hope ranked among Hollywood's Top 10 moneymaking stars. He regularly appeared on television shows like The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. From 1953 to 1994, he hosted a Christmas television special that was broadcast internationally. Hope also tirelessly entertained American troops stationed throughout the world during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. He made more than 700 trips to American military bases and hospitals around the world, entertaining some 100,000 troops. These efforts earned him five special Academy Awards and the nickname "Mr. Humanitarian." President John F. Kennedy once called him "America's most prized ambassador of goodwill throughout the world," and the United States Congress made him an "honorary veteran" in 1997-an unprecedented gesture. Hope has won more than 2,000 awards and citations, including 54 honorary doctorates, an honorary knighthood, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1985, he was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement. His accolades earned him the title "Most Decorated and Honored Entertainer" in the Guinness Book of Records. I can tell you he was a very personable man having met him at his house in LA a couple of times….skip
1945 – U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history. Early on March 9, Air Force crews met on the Mariana Islands of Tinian and Saipan for a military briefing. They were planning a low-level bombing attack on Tokyo that would begin that evening, but with a twist: Their planes would be stripped of all guns except for the tail turret. The decrease in weight would increase the speed of each Superfortress bomber-and would also increase its bomb load capacity by 65 percent, making each plane able to carry more than seven tons. Speed would be crucial, and the crews were warned that if they were shot down, all haste was to be made for the water, which would increase their chances of being picked up by American rescue crews. Should they land within Japanese territory, they could only expect the very worst treatment by civilians, as the mission that night was going to entail the deaths of tens of thousands of those very same civilians. "You're going to deliver the biggest firecracker the Japanese have ever seen," said U.S. Gen. Curtis LeMay. The cluster bombing of the downtown Tokyo suburb of Shitamachi had been approved only a few hours earlier. Shitamachi was composed of roughly 750,000 people living in cramped quarters in wooden-frame buildings. Setting ablaze this "paper city" was a kind of experiment in the effects of firebombing; it would also destroy the light industries, called "shadow factories," that produced prefabricated war materials destined for Japanese aircraft factories. The denizens of Shitamachi never had a chance of defending themselves. Their fire brigades were hopelessly undermanned, poorly trained, and poorly equipped. At 5:34 p.m., Superfortress B-29 bombers took off from Saipan and Tinian, reaching their target at 12:15 a.m. on March 10. Three hundred and thirty-four bombers, flying at a mere 500 feet, dropped their loads, creating a giant bonfire fanned by 30-knot winds that helped raze Shitamachi and spread the flames throughout Tokyo. Masses of panicked and terrified Japanese civilians scrambled to escape the inferno, most unsuccessfully. The human carnage was so great that the blood-red mists and stench of burning flesh that wafted up sickened the bomber pilots, forcing them to grab oxygen masks to keep from vomiting. The raid lasted slightly longer than three hours. "In the black Sumida River, countless bodies were floating, clothed bodies, naked bodies, all black as charcoal. It was unreal," recorded one doctor at the scene. Only 243 American airmen were lost-considered acceptable losses.
1953 – Responding to press reports that U.S. pilots routinely pursued communist jets across the Manchurian border, Commander in Chief Far East asserted that UN pilots broke off engagements at the Yalu River boundary, enabling many damaged MiGs to escape, although some border violations might have occurred in the heat of combat. Informing the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that air operations in Korea were conducted strictly within limitations established by appropriate authority, he also directed Far East Air Forces to comply with directives concerning violation of the Manchurian border.
1970 – The U.S. Marines turn over control of the five northernmost provinces in South Vietnam to the U.S. Army. The Marines had been responsible for this area since they first arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. The change in responsibility for this area was part of President Richard Nixon's initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels as the South Vietnamese accepted more responsibility for the fighting. After the departure of the 3rd Marine Division from Vietnam in late 1969, the 1st Marine Division was the only marine division left operating in South Vietnam.
1974 – Last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in Philippines, surrendered, 29 years after World War II ended.
2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights and 149 million miles. NASA offered Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum for public display and preservation, after a month-long decontamination process, as part of the national collection. Discovery replaced Enterprise in the Smithsonian's display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Discovery was transported to Washington Dulles International Airport on April 17, 2012, and was transferred to the Udvar-Hazy on April 19 where a welcome ceremony was held. Afterwards, at around 5: 30 pm, Discovery was rolled to its "final wheels stop" in the Udvar Hazy Center
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
CLUTE, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company I, 14th Michigan Infantry. Place and date: At Bentonville, N.C., 19 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Marathon, Mich. Date of issue: 26 August 1898. Citation: In a charge, captured the flag of the 40th North Carolina (C.S.A.), the flag being taken in a personal encounter with an officer who carried and defended it.
WILLIAMS, PETER
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1831, Norway, Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 11, 3 April 1863. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Ironclad Steamer Monitor, Hampton Roads, 9 March 1862. During the engagement between the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Merrimack, Williams gallantly served throughout the engagement as quartermaster, piloting the Monitor throughout the battle in which the Merrimack, after being damaged, retired from the scene of the battle.
*JULIAN, JOSEPH RODOLPH
Rank and organization: Platoon Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 3 April 1918, Sturbridge, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a P/Sgt. serving with the 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 9 March 1945. Determined to force a breakthrough when Japanese troops occupying trenches and fortified positions on the left front laid down a terrific machinegun and mortar barrage in a desperate effort to halt his company's advance, P/Sgt. Julian quickly established his platoon's guns in strategic supporting positions, andthen, acting on his own initiative, fearlessly moved forward to execute a 1-man assault on the nearest pillbox. Advancing alone, he hurled deadly demolition and white phosphorus grenades into the emplacement, killing 2 of the enemy and driving the remaining 5 out into the adjoining trench system. Seizing a discarded rifle, he jumped into the trench and dispatched the 5 before they could make an escape. Intent on wiping out all resistance, he obtained more explosives and, accompanied by another marine, again charged the hostile fortifications and knocked out 2 more cave positions. Immediately thereafter, he launched a bazooka attack unassisted, firing 4 rounds into the 1 remaining pillbox and completely destroying it before he fell, mortally wounded by a vicious burst of enemy fire. Stouthearted and indomitable, P/Sgt. Julian consistently disregarded all personal danger and, by his bold decision, daring tactics, and relentless fighting spirit during a critical phase of the battle, contributed materially to the continued advance of his company and to the success of his division's operations in the sustained drive toward the conquest of this fiercely defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His outstanding valor and unfaltering spirit of self-sacrifice throughout the bitter conflict sustained and enhanced the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
HARVEY, RAYMOND
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, Company C, 17th Infantry Regiment. Place and date: Vicinity of Taemi-Dong, Korea, 9 March 1951. Entered service at: Pasadena, Calif. Born: 1 March 1920 Ford City, Pa. G.O. No.: 67, 2 August 1951. Citation: Capt. Harvey Company C, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. When his company was pinned down by a barrage of automatic weapons fire from numerous well-entrenched emplacements, imperiling accomplishment of its mission, Capt. Harvey braved a hail of fire and exploding grenades to advance to the first enemy machine gun nest, killing its crew with grenades. Rushing to the edge of the next emplacement, he killed its crew with carbine fire. He then moved the 1st Platoon forward until it was again halted by a curtain of automatic fire from well fortified hostile positions. Disregarding the hail of fire, he personally charged and neutralized a third emplacement. Miraculously escaping death from intense crossfire, Capt. Harvey continued to lead the assault. Spotting an enemy pillbox well camouflaged by logs, he moved close enough to sweep the emplacement with carbine fire and throw grenades through the openings, annihilating its 5 occupants. Though wounded he then turned to order the company forward, and, suffering agonizing pain, he continued to direct the reduction of the remaining hostile positions, refusing evacuation until assured that the mission would be accomplished. Capt. Harvey's valorous and intrepid actions served as an inspiration to his company, reflecting the utmost glory upon himself and upholding the heroic traditions of the military service.
JACOBS, JACK H.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Element, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Republic of Vietnam. Place and date: Kien Phong Province, Republic of Vietnam, 9 March 1968. Entered service at: Trenton, N.J. Born: 2 August 1945, Brooklyn, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Jacobs (then 1st Lt.), Infantry, distinguished himself while serving as assistant battalion advisor, 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The 2d Battalion was advancing to contact when it came under intense heavy machine gun and mortar fire from a Viet Cong battalion positioned in well fortified bunkers. As the 2d Battalion deployed into attack formation its advance was halted by devastating fire. Capt. Jacobs, with the command element of the lead company, called for and directed air strikes on the enemy positions to facilitate a renewed attack. Due to the intensity of the enemy fire and heavy casualties to the command group, including the company commander, the attack stopped and the friendly troops became disorganized. Although wounded by mortar fragments, Capt. Jacobs assumed command of the allied company, ordered a withdrawal from the exposed position and established a defensive perimeter. Despite profuse bleeding from head wounds which impaired his vision, Capt. Jacobs, with complete disregard for his safety, returned under intense fire to evacuate a seriously wounded advisor to the safety of a wooded area where he administered lifesaving first aid. He then returned through heavy automatic weapons fire to evacuate the wounded company commander. Capt. Jacobs made repeated trips across the fire-swept open rice paddies evacuating wounded and their weapons. On 3 separate occasions, Capt. Jacobs contacted and drove off Viet Cong squads who were searching for allied wounded and weapons, single-handedly killing 3 and wounding several others. His gallant actions and extraordinary heroism saved the lives of 1 U.S. advisor and 13 allied soldiers. Through his effort the allied company was restored to an effective fighting unit and prevented defeat of the friendly forces by a strong and determined enemy. Capt. Jacobs, by his gallantry and bravery in action in the highest traditions of the military service, has reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
ADKINS, BENNIE G.
Rank and Organization: Sergeant First Class. U.S. Army, Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces. Place and Date: Camp A Shau, Republic of Vietnam, March 9-12, 1966. Entered Service At: Waurika, Oklahoma. Born: 1 February 1934, Waurika, Okla. Departed: No. G.O. Number:. Date of Issue: 09/15/2014. Accredited To:. Citation: Sergeant First Class Adkins distinguished himself during the period 9 March 1966 to 12 March 1966 during combat operations at Camp A Shau, Republic of Vietnam. When the camp was attacked by a large Viet Cong force, Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense hostile fire and manned a mortar position. Although he was wounded, he ran through exploding mortar rounds and dragged several of his comrades to safety. When the hostile fire subsided, Sergeant First Class Adkins exposed himself to sporadic sniper fire and carried his wounded comrades to the camp dispensary. During the evacuation of a seriously wounded American, Sergeant First Class Adkins maneuvered outside the camp walls to draw fire and successfully covered the rescue. During the early morning hours of 10 March 1966, a Viet Cong regiment launched their main attack. Within two hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins was the only man firing a mortar weapon. Although he was painfully wounded and most of his crew was killed or wounded, he fought off the fanatical waves of attacking Viet Cong. After withdrawing to a communications bunker where several Americans were attempting to fight off a company of Viet Cong, Sergeant First Class Adkins killed numerous insurgents with his suppressive fire. Running extremely low on ammunition, he returned to the mortar pit, gathered the vital ammunition, and ran through intense fire back to the communications bunker. After being ordered to evacuate the camp, all signal equipment and classified documents were destroyed. Sergeant First Class Adkins and a small group of men fought their way out of the camp and evaded the Viet Cong for two days until they were rescued by a helicopter. Sergeant First Class Adkins' extraordinary heroism in close combat against a numerically superior hostile force was in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for March 9, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
9 March
1927: The Navy bought its first transport, the JR-1 trimotor, from the Ford Motor Company. (24) Capt Hawthorne C. Gray set an FAI altitude record of 28,510 feet for subclass A-8 (2,200 to 3,000 cubic meters capacity and A-9 balloons (3,000 to 4,000 cubic meters). (9)
1940: TSgt T. A. Petra (USMC) piloted an AD-17A Beechcraft biplane to 21,050 feet in altitude--a probable record altitude above Antarctica--to measure cosmic rays for the US Antarctic Expedition. (5)
1945: Changing tactics to low-altitude flights to double the bombload, the XXI Bomber Command dispatched more than 300 B-29s on an incendiary night raid from the Marianas Islands against Tokyo. They destroyed about 25 percent of the city. Previously, the bombers conducted high altitude daylight attacks against specific targets. (21)
1955: In a F-84F Thunderstreak, Lt Col Robert R. Scott set a 3-hour, 44-minute, 53-second record for the 2,446-mile flight from Los Angeles to New York. (9) (24)
1956: The Boeing B-52C Stratofortress first flew. (5) Hollywood filmed "Toward the Unknown" at Edwards AFB. (5)
1959: F-102 CONVERSION. The 16 FIS at Naha AB, Okinawa, became the first squadron in PACAF to convert to Convair's F-102 Delta Dagger. The unit, previously equipped with F-86D Sabres, became operationally ready later in September. (17)
1971: Thomas C. McMurtry, a NASA engineer and pilot, flew an F-8 fighter with a supercritical wing for the first time. (5)
1976: The Defense Systems Acquisition Review Council approved the M-X concept, the system validation plans, and the preference for the buried trench basing. (6) After a coal mine disaster in Whitesburg, Ky., two 314 TAW C-130s from Little Rock AFB airlifted rescue teams and equipment. (18)
1977: The 354 TFW at Myrtle Beach AFB received the first A-10 for hands-on training. (11)
1979: Cadet Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince of Iran, graduated from undergraduate pilot training at Reese AFB, Texas. (16) Operation FLYING STAR. Two E-3 AWACS deployed to Saudi Arabia to respond to a threat to that country's southern border. (21)
1993: A Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird came out of retirement to fly a scientific flight for NASA at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB. The aircraft, outfitted with an ultraviolet video camera, flew to nearly 83,000 feet to collect 140,000 images of stars and comets (20)
1998: Through 9 April, Air Mobility Command performed 104 airlift and 110 air refueling missions for a 6-nation tour of Africa. On 22 March, President Clinton--with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, and a large official party on Air Force One-- left Andrews AFB on a 12-day journey through sub-Saharan Africa. It was the first time a sitting American president had visited Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, and Senegal. (22)
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Thanks to Barrel
This is a bit long but well worth the time.
☕️ GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENTS☙ Sunday, March 8, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS ðŸ¦
Special bonus edition: Does Trump have a plan to avert an oil crisis that could end his presidency, or is it all just chaos and reckless brinksmanship? The pundits say chaos. Here's another take.
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Good morning, loyal C&C supporters, it's Sunday— and if you woke up panicking about Iran, this post is your antidote.
⛑️ C&C ARMY BRIEFING — IRAN WAR UPDATE ⛑️
The week-old war in Iran exploded into a new phase yesterday— and so did the hysteria. The New York Times ran the story, headlined "U.S. and Israel Expand Strikes on Iran as Fuel Depots Burn in Tehran." We've crossed an unwritten but flashing red line, the third rail of Middle East war strategy, and are now directly attacking Iranian oil facilities— a politically risky move that has been verboten for, well, ever. Some Trump supporters are starting to panic.
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Last night, coalition forces mostly destroyed Tondgouyan Oil Refinery (located south of Tehran) and multiple storage depots. Towers of incandescent flame turned night into day, and giant plumes of thick, black smoke blackened the capital's skyline. "The attacks," the Times noted, "appeared to be the first targeting energy infrastructure since the joint U.S.-Israeli air war on Iran began last weekend."
What the Times was trying to say was that the strike crossed an invisible red line, because the longstanding gentleman's agreement for making war in the Middle East has always been don't touch the oil.
For decades, there's been a tacit understanding among all major players in the Middle East —including the US and Israel— that oil infrastructure is off-limits in military conflicts. Not because anyone signed a treaty, but because everyone understood that hitting oil facilities was mutually assured economic destruction. Oil prices spike, stock markets plunge, and the attacking country gets blamed for wrecking the economy.
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When Israel struck Iran in October 2024, for example, the Biden administration explicitly pressured Netanyahu to leave nuclear sites and oil facilities alone. Israel assured Biden they'd only hit military targets. The mullahs watched that, and got exactly the confirmation they wanted— even when Israel was retaliating for a direct Iranian missile attack, Washington drew a red line around the oil. The gentleman's agreement held.
By striking the Tondgouyan refinery, Trump just shattered that implicit agreement, and it's now lying on the desert sand in shards. The markets are not taking it well. Neither are some Trump supporters.
Given the scale of the transgression, the political risks with the midterms looming in six months, and the fact they're all nervous as geriatric cats attending a rocking-chair convention, you can understand why some thoughtful Trump supporters are mildly freaking out. For example, consider this tweet by Geiger Capital, yesterday (reposted by my friend and very smart thinker Jeffrey Tucker):
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Mega-tweeter Mario Nawful (3.1m followers) even pinned this gloomy tweet:
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In another tweet right below that one, Nawful declared, "Iran is losing this war militarily, but winning it strategically." In sum: it's not looking good for Trumpand Iran is winning.
Despite always being wrong about Trump predictions, pollster Nate Silver (3m followers) tweeted that the strike didn't seem smart to him, what with the affordability narrative featuring so prominently in the midterm elections:
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FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin wondered what this will do to the price of groceries. Maybe it's time to hoard toilet paper again:
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Author Brandon Weichert tweeted that it will sink the US economy and it will be the end of the Trump presidency.
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My goodness. I bet your social media feed will be packed with similar sentiment. So it's time for an emergency narrative intervention. Get ready to have your brain armor-plated against the incoming cognitive SCUD missiles.
The media's deception begins with mischaracterizing the strike on the Tondgouyan refinery. The New York Times unhelpfully referred to it only as a "domestic facility" and part of Iran's "energy infrastructure," completely omitting the critical context that the major oil refinery and storage tanks located right outside the capital city were there for a reason. Tondgouyan was the IRGC's key military fuel depot and ammunition dump.
Let's tackle this in four points.
🚀 The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC for short, isn't just a conventional military force. It is both a shadow government and economic powerhouse that operates more or less independently of the civilian leadership (hence its recent defiance of President Pezeshkian). Last week, Fortune reported, "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard controls a sprawling business empire that dominates the economy"— more than half of Iran's GDP.
Far from being just another Middle East army, the IRGC runs oil, banking, telecom, agriculture, real estate, transportation, shipping, and even Tehran's international airport through its network of front groups and wholly owned subsidiaries. It's less of a military force and more of a Fortune 500 company with a rocket division. Like a Walmart with tanks.
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The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran allocates a third of all oil revenue directly to the IRGC. The IRGC shipped about 85,000 barrels a day to Syria, and sells the rest mostly to China through a so-called "shadow fleet" designed to avoid sanctions. By blowing up the IRGC's own refinery, Trump wasn't just hurting "Iran" in a general sense— he was trying to bankrupt the IRGC specifically, by collapsing its parallel economy.
Many folks are deeply confused about the significance of yesterday's refinery strike. It didn't damage Iran's ability to export oil, since the refinery strike on Tondgouyan didn't affect the country's export facilities like Kharg Island (more on that in a moment). It was a refinery for domestic fuel. Hitting Tondgouyan hit the IRGC's ability to keep its trucks and war machinery running, andundermined the regime's social compact— selling fuel to its own population.
It was a precision strike on the IRGC's economic oxygen, not reckless chaos. And it did not degrade Iran's oil export capability, even though that's what the useless Times hopes to trick everyone into believing.
Tondgouyan was one gentleman's agreement shattered. But it wasn't the only one. The strike's real target might not have been the IRGC— it might have been China. But first, let's see what the US is really doing around Iranian export facilities, since that's what matters for global oil prices.
🚀 You've probably never heard of Kharg Island. But it might be the most strategically important chunk of rock on Earth right now. Kharg is a tiny, sun-blasted limestone island sitting in the shallow turquoise waters of the northern Persian Gulf, about fifteen miles off Iran's coast. It doesn't look like much. You'd never holiday there. (TripAdvisor: zero stars. "No beach, no pool, smells like petroleum. Would not recommend.")
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But crammed onto its roughly five-by-two-mile footprint is a labyrinth of massive crude oil storage tanks, seven deep-water loading jetties, pumping stations, and miles of pipeline— the throat through which ninety percent of Iran's crude oil exports gush on their way to market. That's roughly 1.5 million barrels a day, almost all of it bound for China on a shadow fleet of sanctions-dodging tankers.
It's a patch of land roughly the size of a below-average golf course that can collapse the global economy. That would be a bad day on the links. But losing Kharg alone would crush Iran into nanoparticles— a military hole-in-one.
Kill Kharg, and you don't just damage Iran's economy — you sever its aorta. The mullahs never bothered building a backup course, because of that gentleman's agreement, which shielded its oil infrastructure from attack. Nobody would dare. Killing Kharg would crash the global economy.
Think of it: the entire Iranian oil economy (and the world's markets) had a single point of failure protected only by a gentleman's agreement. The trouble is, President Trump has not been overly praised for his gentlemanliness. Or think of it this way: Iranian energy infrastructure was protected by a prisoner's dilemma. Both sides refrained from striking oil facilities because both sides needed the oil. But Trump changed the equation, by making Iran's oil unnecessary. He didn't just break the agreement; he made it irrelevant.
Indeed, coalition forces have not damaged Kharg Island. They are leaving it alone. But late last night, Axios ran this misleading headline:
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Axios' framing was Trump is breaking his promise not to put 'boots on the ground.' Axios invested most of its column inches describing a plan where Israeli and US special forces would enter Iranian territory and take control of the uranium enrichment facilities. (We obviously can't bomb them, since it would create an environmental disaster.)
But Axios buried the lede. Late in the story, this short, intriguing paragraph appeared:
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If the US seizes Kharg Island, it will control 90% of Iranian crude oil exports. That could be a great help in getting oil prices under control once the fighting dies down.
But that wasn't all.
🚀 There is another vast, untapped global reservoir of available cheap oil. That reservoir is called Russia.
While all eyes linger on the smoke and flames in the Persian Gulf, the world's largest available reservoir of cheap crude is sitting right there, frozen in place not by geology but by policy. Russia produces around ten million barrels a day —making it the world's third-largest oil producer— but Western sanctions have kept much of that bottled up, stranded on tankers with nowhere to go, or diverted through sketchy shadow fleets at steep discounts.
Before the Ukraine war, Russian crude flowed freely to Europe, India, and global markets. Proxy War sanctions changed the plumbing but didn't drain the reservoir. The oil is still there —vast quantities of it— just waiting for someone to grab the spigot.
Well, guess what? On Friday —the day before the strike on Tondgouyan— Reuters reported, "US could lift sanctions on more Russian oil, says Bessent."
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Bessent said the US is considering lifting sanctions on Russian oil to "bring relief to the market." In other words, the administration already had a replacement lined up for every barrel of Iranian crude taken offline by the war. "There are hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of crude on the water, and by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply," Bessent told Fox Business' Larry Kudlow. "And we are looking at that," he added.
In fact, he's not just looking. He's already doing it. On the same day, the BBC ran this remarkable headline:
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In short, Secretary Bessent granted India a 30-day waiver of sanctions on Russian oil. Now it can buy cheap oil from Moscow's fleet, millions of gallons of which just happen to be bobbing around the oceans, ready for delivery.
In one stroke of a Treasury pen, Russia gets its revenue back, global prices stabilize, and Iran's leverage —"you can't touch our oil without wrecking the world economy"— evaporates. The gentleman's agreement didn't just depend on nobody being willing to strike the oil. It also depended on there being no alternative supply.
Trump found another third way, hiding in plain sight behind our own sanctions regime. That's the second 'gentleman's agreement' Trump snapped in half, the unwritten rule that Russia would be punished forever. Now it's negotiable.
But why would Trump even take this geopolitically radioactive risk in the first place? Why is he gambling with the global economic stability he so dearly purchased last year in 2025? What possible stakes justify it?
Follow the barrels. It's not just about winning the 'war' with Iran. Trump is shooting for all the marbles: China.
🚀 In 2025, China imported 1.38 million barrels of Iranian crude a day— which is roughly 13.4% of China's total seaborne oil imports. Almost all of it flowed through the IRGC's shadow-fleet tankers via ship-to-ship transfers off Malaysia. Last year, CBS News ran a dramatic undercover film of twelve of those exchanges, in one day, in broad daylight. (I have no theory for why CBS could find them, but sanctions police couldn't.)
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That Iran-China supply line is now severed. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. Kharg Island may be about to be seized. China's "teapot refineries" —small, independent operators who were the key buyers of sanctioned Iranian, Venezuelan, and Russian crude at steep discounts— just lost their two cheapest sources.
That was the third gentleman's agreement Trump vaporized— the tacit agreement that China could indefinitely buy cheap rogue-state oil off Malaysia in broad daylight.
Trump's Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and China hawk Elbridge Colby has explicitly advocated a strategy of denying China the strategic resources it needs to achieve superpower status. Last month, Colby told Foreign Policy, "The US's grand strategy is to deny China access to energy and markets." Iran sits on the world's third-largest proven crude reserves and second-largest natural gas reserves. A post-conflict Iran aligned with Washington wouldn't just remove a nuclear threat, it would permanently place the US's hand on one of China's energy spigots.
China has now lost two of three major oil suppliers: Venezuela and Iran. That's not a coincidence. But the third domino may also be falling, too: Russia. If Trump does a deal with Russia to end sanctions, Russia could start selling its oil to the world, and China will lose its third pillar.
Right now, China gets Russian oil at steep discounts because of sanctions. Russia must sell cheaply because its buyer pool is limited— basically China and India, via the shadow fleet. Sanctions made China the customer of last resort, which gave Beijing enormous leverage to dictate bottom-barrel prices.
If Trump lifts sanctions, Russian crude returns to the open global market. Russia can sell to Europe, Japan, South Korea, India — anyone. Moscow no longer needs to give Beijing the friends-and-family discount. Market competition replaces monopsonistic dependency.
So China wouldn't just lose primary access to Russian oil— it would lose the cheap price. China would go from paying bargain-basement rates for sanctioned Russian crude to competing at full market price against every other buyer on earth. Three pillars of discount energy —Venezuela, Iran, Russia— all knocked out in the span of a few months.
Not only that.
🚀 Guess who will howl the loudest if Trump drops Russian oil sanctions? The green-sweatshirted former comedian in Kiev, that's who. Zelensky's comedic leverage for two years has been "keep sanctioning Russia, they're the aggressor." If Trump cuts a deal that lifts Russian oil sanctions in exchange for a peace agreement (or even just Russian non-interference in Iran), Zelensky gets dragged to the negotiating table whether he likes it or not.
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He has no argument. What's he going to say? Don't unsanction Russia? When American gas prices are spiking, and the Administration can say that lifting sanctions will stabilize the global economy and help win the Iran war? That's a losing hand politically. Zelensky can't compete with cheap gas at American pumps.
Ironic. Zelensky's leverage just became Trump's leverage. Zelensky's best argument against Russia is now Trump's best argument against Zelensky.
It also explains why President Trump has been publicly squeezing Zelensky so hard. Three days ago, Politico reported that Trump said, "It's incredible that Zelensky is an obstacle to an agreement... He already had no cards, and now he has even fewer." Two days before that, Trump called Zelensky the "P.T. Barnum" of Ukraine— referencing how he'd conned the Cabbage into trading hundreds of billions in US weapons for nothing.
In other words, Trump was pre-weakening Zelensky's negotiating position before offering Russia the sanctions-relief carrot. By the time an oil deal with Moscow materializes, Zelensky has been pre-positioned as the guy who's being unreasonable, not any sympathetic underdog.
That makes four. The gentleman's agreement that the West would support Ukraine unconditionally, no questions asked, just encountered a snag.
Just last year, Russia, China, and Iran held a joint meeting with the IAEA to defend Iran's nuclear program. Now we are offering Russia Iran's market share, China is watching its cheap oil disappear, and Ukraine's card deck is exhausted. The axis of resistance is being dismantled not by bombs alone, but by deals.
Three separate conflicts, one unified strategy, four dusty gentlemen's agreements. We are finally beginning to see all the dots coalescing.
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🚀 So let's return to our panicking pundits. Mario Nawful says Iran is "winning strategically." Nate Silver thinks the strike "doesn't seem smart." Brandon Weichert predicts "the end of the Trump presidency." Kyle Seraphin worries about grocery prices. Geiger Capital sees nothing but chaos. The sky is falling!
With all due respect to these thoughtful folks, they're looking at one chess piece and missing the board.
Iran is a burning country whose Supreme Leader is dead, whose military is openly ignoring its civilian government, whose navy has been sunk, whose allies are fleeing like rats off a torpedoed destroyer, and whose only remaining asset —Kharg Island— looks likely to be seized by US special forces. That's not "winning strategically." That's a regime in free fall watching its final friends heading for the exits.
What looks like reckless escalation is actually a four-dimensional squeeze, and every piece was in position before the first Tomahawk hit Tondgouyan:
· The IRGC is being financially strangled. Its domestic refinery is destroyed, its revenue sources are cut, and its soldiers were offered amnesty to surrender.
· Russia is being peeled away from Iran with an offer Moscow can't refuse— hundreds of millions of barrels of unsanctioned oil revenue, plus a path to end its economic isolation.
· China is watching all three of its discount oil suppliers —Venezuela, Iran, and soon maybe Russia— disappear or reprice simultaneously, as tariffs bite from the other direction. Without oil, it can't even think about invading Taiwan.
· And Kharg Island —Iran's crown jewel— sits there undestroyed, waiting to be captured. A seized terminal is worth infinitely more than a bombed one.
As for oil prices, why wouldn't they stabilize? The Administration is already turning the valves. Secretary Bessent explained it on Friday. Russian oil floods back onto world markets, Saudi spare capacity kicks in, and the US remains the world's largest producer. Like Trump said, the spike will be temporary.
But the strategic realignment will be permanent.
The people freaking out are making the oldest mistake in the Trump playbook: they're confusing the appearance of chaos with actual chaos. They said the same thing about tariffs. They said it about the Abraham Accords. They said it when Trump walked across the DMZ to shake Kim Jong-un's hand. Every single time, the "experts" saw madness, and every single time, later events showed the method underneath.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not minimizing the stakes. This is an ultra-high-stakes poker game. An infinite number of things could go wrong. But I challenge the narrative that there is no plan. It seems clear to me that a carefully sequenced blueprint is unfolding. And those are just the parts we can see.
But let's say there is no grand plan. Maybe it is all chaos, and Trump just keeps getting lucky. At some point, when every "reckless" maneuver keeps lining up with the same strategic objective —squeezing China, flipping Russia, decapitating the IRGC, and consolidating US energy dominance— we must consider the possibility that the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal might know a thing or two about making one.
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