Per Tasnim, US strikes reportedly hit a key bridge around Bandar Abbas tonight, days after Axios reported Trump warning that next week brings the power plants and the bridges.
While the two guests were still talking, an F-35 reportedly declared an inflight emergency over UAE airspace, and the WSJ reported Trump is leaning toward expanded operations, with Kharg Island ground options on the list.
Jonathan Conricus, former IDF spokesman, argued the case for force: CENTCOM has planned the strait mission for decades, the targets that actually matter remain unstruck, and the West keeps crediting the regime with strength it lacks:
"If the straits need to be opened, then they need to be opened by force."
Brandon Weichert answered with arithmetic.
Two Marine expeditionary units plus the 82nd Airborne against a tunneled coastline of anti ship missiles reads like Gallipoli to him, the Navy already keeps its distance, and by his count interceptor stocks drained fast in sea fighting the public never saw.
His bottom line: the strategic loss already happened, and the exit runs through negotiation.
Jonathan granted Washington never explained this war to its own public, and Brandon granted the escalation is coming regardless.
The bridges outside Bandar Abbas were settling the question in real time.
Two of the sharpest people on opposite sides of the same question.
@WeTheBrandon, @jconricus
