Source: Antiwar.com
by Jenny Williams

“The notion of a short and decisive war has always been a temptation for politicians. This notion holds a promise of quick victories, low costs, and clear triumphs. However, the course of history over the last few decades has indicated that wars do not always follow this pattern. The current conflict between the United States and Iran seems to be a clear manifestation of this reality, as the early indications of a quick victory are not supported by the fundamental realities of the conflict.” (03/16/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/jenny_williams/2026/03/15/the-war-without-an-exit-why-quick-victories-in-iran-are-illusions/

Source: Reason
by Nick Gillespie

“Jesus, how do you write an obit of someone you hired? It is with a heavy heart but many, many fond memories and intense gratitude that I write about my colleague Brian Doherty, found dead unexpectedly on Friday at the age of 57. I joined Reason in the fall of 1993. He was hired later in 1994 and then left the staff for a while around the end of the decade. When I became editor in chief of the magazine and website in 2000, he was the first person I called. Come back, I said, Reason needs you. What I liked most about Brian was his abiding interest in things happening on the margins of American culture, politics, and thought, and his deep appreciation for the prodigious bounty that markets deliver reliably and without moralizing.” (03/16/26)

https://reason.com/2026/03/16/remembering-brian-doherty-chronicler-of-and-participant-in-wild-and-wonderful-subcultures/

Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire

“When personalization is king and optimization is everywhere, fiction has lessons about where to stop.” (03/16/26)

https://www.liberalism.org/p/mini-tacos-murder-and-the-problem-of-getting-exactly-what-we-want

Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sheridan Macy

“Gail Nazarene, an elected school board member in New Jersey, thought she was performing her duties as a public servant and participating in the democratic process when she asked her constituents about tax increases on Facebook. This simple act led to an ethics complaint by another school board member because, unlike most other states, New Jersey interprets its school ethics rules to potentially cover any speech that’s merely about schools, supposedly because community members are likely to attribute any such statement from a board member as being on behalf of the board. But the First Amendment forbids the government from punishing school board members for speaking their minds on public issues. That’s why FIRE is suing New Jersey on Nazarene’s behalf.” (03/16/26)

https://www.fire.org/news/why-are-school-board-members-afraid-speak

Source: TomDispatch
by Alfred W McCoy

“In the first chapter of his 1874 novel The Gilded Age, Mark Twain offered a telling observation about the connection between past and present: ‘History never repeats itself, but the… present often seems to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends.’ Among the ‘antique legends’ most helpful in understanding the likely outcome of the current U.S. intervention in Iran is the Suez Crisis of 1956, which I describe in my new book Cold War on Five Continents. After Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in July 1956, a joint British-French armada of six aircraft carriers destroyed Egypt’s air force, while Israeli troops smashed Egyptian tanks in the sands of the Sinai Peninsula. Within less than a week of war, Nasser had lost his strategic forces and Egypt seemed helpless before the overwhelming might of that massive imperial juggernaut.” (03/15/26)

https://tomdispatch.com/imperial-decline-in-the-straits-of-hormuz/