As the World Burns...
Steyn Online,
by
Mark Steyn
Original Article
Posted By: Citoyen,
3/21/2026 11:41:18 AM
Time to dust off the "Mission Accomplished" banner?
~A Thought for the Day from David Blair in our comments section:
It's time to move past your reticence to have initiated the war and get behind Trump. Your fear that it might end badly is noted.
"Get behind Trump"? That might be better directed at Vance, Gabbard, Kennedy and other cabinet members whose discomfort with the strange turn of events is palpable either through their sudden absence from public life or when they're testifying to Congress and trying to walk the fine line between not getting fired now and not getting impeached by the incoming Democrat majority in January.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
stablemoney 3/21/2026 12:10:14 PM (No. 2083208)
Steyn joins the Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Liz Chaney crowd. I think he needs an interpreter, as I don't get any of his metaphors.
27 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 3/21/2026 12:15:40 PM (No. 2083211)
Has Steyn been drinking the Carlson kool-Aid? What the hell?
31 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
JackBurton 3/21/2026 12:22:03 PM (No. 2083220)
A friend of mine told me that the failure of anyone in Europe to get behind the attack on Tehran isn't a bug, it's a feature.
It will get us out of Nato.... which was meant to stop the U.S.S.R. So, can you say obsolete?
Also, It looks like we'll do to Iran, (three times the size of Ukraine according to Steyn) in four weeks what the Russians couldn't do to Ukraine in four years. Plus, Russia no longer gets the drones and the Chinese are currently without the oil while the Iranians are currently without Russia AND China.
I'm with Kurt Schlichter (Townhall) on this one. Smart people say we're winning. If you say we're losing you're......
35 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
LadyHen 3/21/2026 12:33:32 PM (No. 2083230)
Op, thank you for posting this. I had not yet seen it. I have long been a Steyn reader, he was Rush's anointed sub after all, and for anyone to call into question his qualifications says more about them than Mark. Mark has not changed one iota in all these years. Pick up one of his books for heaven's sake... and read it.
Maybe these posters had better spend their over abundance of time thinking about what Mark is saying instead of the usual knee jerk insults and if you don't get his inferences or references, you might aught to do some research beyond the blind devotion of the Lindsey Graham echo chamber. What Mark is saying is what many of us have been saying for some time now and we too have been labelled some pretty nasty stuff by the rah rah crowd. We who are not thrilled are loyal Conservatives who DON'T want to lose the mid terms and DON'T want to lose the White House in 2028. We believed in President Trump and his promises but we want as many of those promises kept as possible. I do not think with a GOP controlled White House, House, and Senate and a majority of the USSC justices at least giving lip service to Conservative principles that should have been an unreasonable expectation.
16 people like this.
If Mr. Steyn is not embarrassed by sounding like he's auditioning for CNN I can bear the shame of being aligned with Lindsay Graham and Mark Levin for the moment (we'll probably fall out over "US boots on the ground" soon enough.) As for how this ends, now that Israel and most of its neighbors are on speaking terms they should take the net step and cooperate on a joint police action to eliminate the remnants of the Mullahs' regime and help the Iranians build a civil society and representative government.
15 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
revenant 3/21/2026 1:49:44 PM (No. 2083261)
I respect Steyn. You know he's not taking this position because he wants us to fail. And the OP's point is well taken. But I believe this had to be done before it became impossible to accomplish. And yes it could go sideways. Trump weighed the options and made a decision that could eradicate the terror regime.
Schlichter vs Steyn -- that would be an interesting debate. Schlichter's column the other day, "Don't Listen Idiots about the Iran War," is as supportive of the effort as Steyn is opposed. Steyn, of course is not an idiot,
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Lanetam 3/21/2026 2:03:25 PM (No. 2083266)
I watched many of Trump's rallies, and at every one of them he stated very clearly that he was not going to allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. That does not get done by sending the Mullahs pallets of money (Obama) or lifting the oil sanctions (Biden). It gets done by dismantling their military leaders, weapons and their nuclear capabilities that we are seeing right now. He has also stated very clearly that once all of these objectives are done; the people of Iran will be in charge or their own country.
25 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
rushie 3/21/2026 2:15:48 PM (No. 2083270)
I trust President Trump.
32 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
robertthomason 3/21/2026 3:20:32 PM (No. 2083287)
Boring, tedious and disappointing.
12 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Golden Goose 3/21/2026 6:57:34 PM (No. 2083354)
A swing and a miss for Mark Steyn. He’s entitled to his opinion, and we’re all wrong from time to time. We’re doing the whole world a favor, and it’s been a long time coming.
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 3/21/2026 7:37:51 PM (No. 2083362)
November 4, 1979.
That’s when our war against Iran began. A feckless and impotent Jimmy Carter surrendered. An entire new division was born and a star as well with Nightline and Ted Koppel. They promptly began exporting Islamic terrorism throughout the Middle East.
Donald Trump is the ONLY president who had the balls to call it out, make a plan, and execute it. As he has noted, this isn’t a war against the people of Iran and thus far that has held. Mark, as smart and aware as he is, is stuck in the Euro detente frame of mind.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Schnapps 3/21/2026 7:42:39 PM (No. 2083366)
Regular readers of Mark Steyn know that he's a strong supporter of Trump and has expressed high regard for Hegseth and Rubio in the way they have dealt with the "wanker" European politicians. That said, Mark has little confidence that the Pentagon has been sufficiently purged of the woke and DEI brass who have repeatedly waged and lost decades-long wars. Mark also has a point that we are fighting the enemy over there so we don't have to fight them over here but they're already over here and our government is not serious about dealing with it.
He is clearly not with Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.
9 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
joew9 3/21/2026 10:22:35 PM (No. 2083404)
I think it boils down to - are we going to suffer through slightly more costly gasoline and stop Iran from getting nukes when they surely would blow up DC, NYC, and San Fran. Or do we back off and get cheaper gasoline and ... Wait a minute. Hmmm... Now that I think about it, cheap gasoline might not be so bad.
4 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
NeonVortex 3/21/2026 11:13:34 PM (No. 2083409)
The political grifting continues.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
LadyHen 3/22/2026 12:57:03 AM (No. 2083415)
The thing #13 is IF the GOP had any manly fortitude, oil and all it's related issues would never be an issue for the US as we have more than enough. Other parts of the globe might need to fight over it but we should never need have fear. We have a huge supply right here in the US and the Western hemisphere is chocked full of untapped or only minorly tapped reserves.
But we have enviroweenies and their Dem shills... and a weak GOP that will not challenge them. (That friends and neighbors is a war I would be happy for Trump to fight!)
But I do not think this present "war" is about oil directly (it might be only peripherally due to the impact on China which yet has not been realized as we have dropped ALL embargos in a ploy to keep oil at $100 a barrel, and exactly how long will that work?) but it is very secondary at this point. But, if this drags on, gas prices will become a huge issue for average everyday Americans. They are already $4.00 a gallon here in TN and November is looming.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/22/2026 5:53:20 AM (No. 2083440)
Love him or hate him, Steyn is ALWAYS entertaining. Donald Trump's goals are clear but getting the rest of the world to cooperate is difficult when you can't even get your own congress on the same page because US politics comes before a peaceful world. Stopping the mad mullahs from getting nukes in their dirty little hands was the right move. Complaining about the price of gasoline now for an obvious reason does not count if you accepted Biden's price increases without a whimper is hypocritical.
3 people like this.
I'm very much a Steyn fan, going way back. But he disappoints to say the least with his scorn for the US Military, which, with all its faults, is the main reason Western civilization survived two world wars, Soviet world domination, and remains the greatest fighting force ever assembled (who is better, I ask?). The US Military did defeat the communists in Korea, but the settlement of that war by politicians (not the military) led to our current situation with a nuclear North Korea. Vietnam, clearly, was another civilian leadership caused disaster. Those goat herds armed with fertilizer? Another fools errand dictated by civilian leadership. Our military HAS suffered from the Woke policies of Biden, and is not immune from criticism, but Steyn's scorn should be directed to the way the military has been (mis)used and who actually caused it. What, Mr. Steyn, is the alternative to the destruction of Iran's military capabilities, other than accepting a nuclear armed lunatic theocracy eager for martyrdom (unlike North Korea, which is not suicidal)? Yes, our INTERNAL fight against the Islamicist invasion is crucial, but so is the global battle.
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
JackBurton 3/22/2026 5:19:55 PM (No. 2083697)
WWII.reference:
All the previous presidents were like Montgomery. We've come to expect that Even to think that it can't be any other way.
Trump is like Patton.
That's what ole Jack Burton says.
1 person likes this.
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A pessimistic but, based on the history of the last quarter century, a realistic take on the Iran War. Despite the pom pom wavers there are signs that all is not well. So far only Israel and the United States are on board. Netanyahu, in a story posted below, states that only a ground force can effect regime change. Whose ground force would that be? On a gut level I am discomforted that Trump and our country, and no one else but Israel, are on the side of Lindsay Graham and Mark Levin.