I just passed Anne on the stairs as she headed down to her first floor office to work. We’re back to vertical living for a bit.
The Iran war keeps reminding us what bombing can’t do, while the Secretary of Defense reshapes the military in the image of the mindset learning its limitations in Iran. He’s reordered its culture around ten directives from a stage at Quantico, rebuilt its buying around a single word—speed, which he used 25 times in one speech—and ordered a “ruthless” review of the military’s lawyers with the instruction “no more moral ambiguity.” Is Iran proving that mindset to be a mistake, (not every problem is a nail despite what the hammer thinks?) or are the lessons of Iran the president’s to own, since he made the choices? (Author quotes self answering that question).
Six months ago, when Hegseth was two weeks into calling himself the Secretary of War, I asked a question: “What happens when decisive violence as a tool of strategy outruns the strategy it is supposed to serve?” The Iran war is answering it. I wrote then, "Eisenhower's question wasn't whether Patton was effective, it was who was holding the leash."
