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- ‘We’ve Already Won’: The Iran War’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment Ha...
Within 72 hours of the opening strikes on Iran, Fox News ran a chyron declaring “WE’VE ALREADY WON.” Laura Ingraham argued Monday that objections to the campaign didn’t “withstand serious scrutiny.” On Tuesday evening, Senator John Kennedy, fresh from a classified briefing, told Sean Hannity the same thing: “We’ve already won.” Vice President JD Vance has said it before the strikes and after — there is “no chance” this becomes a prolonged conflict. Maybe. But that is also what people said in May 2003. To be clear about something first: credit where it’s due. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a genuinely brutal ruler. His security forces crushed protests, executed dissidents, and restricted political and personal freedoms for millions of Iranians over decades. The speed and precision of the strike that killed him reflect real military capability and serious intelligence work. The celebrations among Iranians who lived under his boot are understandable and legitimate, and no honest assessment of this moment should pretend otherwise. Killing Khamenei mattered. The question is whether it’s the whole story — and it isn’t. The instinct to declare early victory is not new, and its consequences are not abstract. On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit, stood before a banner reading “Mission Accomplished,” and declared that major combat operations in Iraq were over. But the mission had not been accomplished. The war would continue for another eight years, cost nearly 4,500 American lives, and reshape the Middle East in ways no one in that administration anticipated or fully acknowledged. That moment became shorthand for something specific: the premature declaration of victory, the image that outran the facts, and a press that amplified the pageantry before asking the harder questions. The banner is back. It just lives on a chyron now. On Wednesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at a podium and said the quiet part out loud: “This is not a Mission Accomplished situation.” The denial is itself a tell. When the Pentagon feels compelled to preemptively argue against a twenty-year-old analogy, the analogy has already landed. Hegseth laid out specific objectives — destroy Iran’s missile and drone infrastructure, annihilate its Navy, sever the nuclear pathway — which is at least more defined than “peace.” Those objectives are now on the record and can be measured. Whether the press treats them as a checklist or… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Pete Hegseth Declares Iran Is ‘Not a Fair Fight’ and Isn’t Meant to Be One...
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared in a Wednesday press conference that the current conflict with Iran is “not a fair fight” and was never meant to be one. “This was never meant to be a fair fight and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” he said. Hegseth’s comments follow U.S. and Israel strikes against Iran that has taken out much of the country’s leadership, including its supreme leader. Iran has responded with their own strikes, killing at least six Americans in Kuwait with a drone strike. Hegseth vowed the American casualties would be avenged. He said: As President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant. More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today. And now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000 pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile. We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start, but no longer need to. Our stockpiles of those, as well as patriots, remains extremely strong. Hegseth warned the U.S. can “sustain this fight easily for as along as we need to.” He compared Iran’s predicament to football. “I liken Iran’s predicament to a football team who scripted the first 20 plays of a game,” he said. “The team knew what plays to run because their first few drives were scripted. But now that the game has started and the blitz is on, they don’t know what plays call, let alone how to get in the huddle and call those plays.” Hegseth declared that the strikes are President Donald Trump getting the “last laugh” against Iran. “Iran tried to kill President Trump. And President Trump got the last laugh,” he said. “Now, this is not a mission accomplished situation. This is simply a reality check.” Watch above via Fox News.The post Pete Hegseth Declares Iran Is ‘Not a Fair Fight’ and Isn’t Meant to Be One: ‘We Are Punching Them While They’re Down’ first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Jon Karl Calls Out Trump Admin Over Emergency Hotline — That Tells Americans â... ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl called out the Trump administration’s hotline for Americans in the Middle East over a recorded message that told them, ““Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation.” Trump posted an announcement on Saturday that the United States was in the process of attacking Iran, and since then, at least six American servicemembers have been killed in the fighting. The strikes took out senior Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But there have been Iranian counterstrikes throughout the region, including U.S. assets, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that he needed their help in getting the message out to Americans in the region: It all starts by knowing that, where you are and how we can get ahold of you. So I’m asking the networks and all of the media outlets, please publicize the two phone numbers that we’ve put out, as well as the website, so people can contact us and register. We’ve had thousands of people call already. As I’ve said, we’ve identified 1,500, almost 1,600 that are requesting assistance with departure. But we need you to, please, be able to identify that. He reiterated that plea later in the presser, saying “we have about – a little over 1,500, maybe closer to 1,600 Americans requesting assistance, and we know that we’re going to be able to help them. That’s going to take a little time because we don’t control the airspace closures. “That said, there may be more people out there that need help. We need to know who you are, so please, I’m asking the media: Publicize the phone numbers and the website because we need people to call in so we have their name, we have their contact information, we have their location and their request, so as these opportunities begin to open up, we can act very quickly to reach them and get them out of harm’s way.” But on Tuesday night, an incredulous Karl posted a video on X that included a portion of the message that Americans were getting from that website: ABC NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT JONATHAN KARL: All right, so Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged news organizations to put the 24-7 State Department emergency line out so that Americans who are stuck in the Middle East can get help getting out of the region, register their names and not, but… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- Mark Levin Says US Soldiers Killed in Trump’s War With Iran Died ‘for a Grea...Fox News host Mark Levin shot down concerns over the number of U.S. casualties in President Donald Trump’s war with Iran this week, insisting that the six U.S. soldiers killed so far died “for a great cause.” Reacting on his podcast Liberty’s Voice to the Republican backlash over Trump’s decision to join Israel’s war with Iran, and to conservatives who accused Trump of betraying his own voters, Levin said: The idea that Donald Trump campaigned on allowing our enemies to build nuclear weapons and threaten to wipe us off the face of the earth, that he shouldn’t intervene in that, that he shouldn’t confront that, that somehow that violates what MAGA stands for, is so idiotic, is so stupid, and yet they push this agenda. “He’s broken his campaign promises.” No, he hasn’t. “He used the military more than any president in history.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but he certainly has used it very wisely, hasn’t he? We didn’t have any casualties in Venezuela. Unfortunately, every casualty is very sad and it affects a family, and we don’t like the fact that we lose any red-blooded Americans. But the battle against the Iranian regime, the purpose is to protect the American people, protect our armed forces, protect the homeland, help our allies, protect tens of thousands of people from being slaughtered who have been slaughtered, and yes, retribution to make it clear that you don’t get to do this to us for half a century without any effective response. So, of course, if we lose heroes, and we lost three [now six], and there may be more, and the president says likely so because it’s a a massive military operation, it’s a terrible thing. They gave their lives. They gave their lives for a great cause. The cause is to try and ensure that it doesn’t happen again, but on a massive broader scale. We’re talking about nuclear weapons. Levin went on to attack his former Fox News colleague Tucker Carlson for criticizing the war with Iran, adding, “One other thing, all these precious human beings that this Iranian regime has murdered since it stole the government in Iran, since it shot its way to power, since it slaughtered its way to power, all these precious human beings who’ve lost their lives, who Qatarlson doesn’t talk about, his cabal doesn’t talk about, Jon Karl doesn’t talk… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago
- Joe Scarborough Warns ‘Person Republicans Feared the Most’ Won TX Primary Af...Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough argued that the “person Republicans feared the most,” Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), could credit his primary win over Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) to the GOP’s “stupid” attempts to “game the system” by leaning in on his Stephen Colbert interview “controversy.” Democrats chose Talarico as their Senate nominee Tuesday night after he defeated Kamala Harris-endorsed Crockett in a closely watched primary. He will now face the winner of the Republican runoff between Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, after neither candidate secured a majority in the GOP primary. The vote came just weeks after Talarico made national headlines when The Late Show’s Colbert claimed that his network, CBS, prevented him from airing an interview with the candidate. CBS denied Colbert’s allegations, arguing it had merely given the show advice on Trump-appointed FCC chair Brendan Carr’s “equal time rule” reading, but even this opened up accusations that the network was complying in advance. On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, the host compared Talarico’s rise to the national stage to that of former President Barack Obama, but went on to frame the primary win as an indictment of the Republican Party’s attempts to shut down interest in the state lawmaker during his campaign, squarely blaming conservatives for having “helped” the Texan “win” his race. “I swear, I just wish these Republicans weren’t so stupid. I wish they’d listen to me. I’m trying to help them out a little bit here, just to make it a fair fight in the fall,” he began. “But what did we say? What did we say? First of all, when they took Colbert off the air? You’re going to pay for it. They did pay for it with South Park 3 or 4 days later, deciding they’re going to lean in even harder. Right?” He continued: “And so here they try to keep Talarico off the show. What happens? They give him a boost. If you talk to Jasmine Crockett, she’ll say the same thing – ‘I was ahead until that controversy.’ So the very person they were trying to defeat, the very person whose message scared them, is the very person who they helped win this race! “It just keeps happening over and over. They think they can game the system. They think that somehow, they’re going to be able to win. In the end, voters… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago
- WATCH: CNN’s Erin Burnett Keeps Interview Rolling as She Flees for Shelter Fro...CNN anchor Erin Burnett managed to keep her rooftop interview with guest Dan Dyker rolling even as the pair fled with her team to shelter when sirens warned of incoming missile fire in Tel Aviv. Burnett broadcast from Israel on Tuesday night as the country continues to take rocket and drone fire from Iran and regime-aligned Hezbollah in Lebanon, following the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against the Iranian regime. The anchor was speaking with Dyker, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, when the sirens blared across the city, forcing the two to strip their mics and run for cover. Interrupting the conversation, Burnett said: “OK, now we hear the sirens, so here’s what we’re going to do everyone – sirens – and you saw that interceptor, it didn’t intercept anything, but we have things coming in so we are going to just un-mic Dan.” “Un-mic and then go downstairs?” Dyker asked. Burnett replied: “Yep. I’m going to show you exactly where we go.” “All right. That’s pretty dramatic,” the guest said. Burnett, picking up a separate mic, she began walking: “You need to move pretty quickly. OK? And there we go. We’re just going to get on to this camera. All right? And come with me, Dan. Yu can just leave that there, OK? All right, all right. I’m going to just move slowly here while Dan’s coming with me. OK? And we’re going to move.” Addressing the audience, she added: “So you hear the sirens now, and this is all around the area that we’re in in Tel Aviv. So that initial warning it was about, I think 5 or 6 minutes. OK. And then let’s just keep going.” Keeping the interview rolling as she went, Dyker continued: “This could be fire from Lebanon as well from the Iranian-instructed Hezbollah. This is part of the Iranian regime’s strategy of what’s called survival warfare: Mobilize as many missiles coming from Lebanon. It could be the Houthis in Yemen, we don’t know. But this is the Iranian regime survival strategy. Mobilize as much terror as you can to distract the world’s attention away from the Iranian front itself.” Watch above via CNN.The post WATCH: CNN’s Erin Burnett Keeps Interview Rolling as She Flees for Shelter From Strikes in Israel first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago
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