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| By The Free Press |
It’s Tuesday, March 10. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Arthur Brooks on why he lives with his grandchildren—and you should, too. Kat Rosenfield read the polyamory memoir so you don’t have to. Patrick McGee on how Taiwan became “the world’s smallest superpower.” Plus: How anti-Israel activists hijacked Columbia’s grad student union. And much more.
But first: How long will this war last?
Is the war in Iran almost over, or just getting started?
On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump appeared to signal that things might soon cool down. He told CBS News that the war was “very far ahead of schedule” and “very complete, pretty much.”
Those words were certainly what markets wanted to hear. Oil prices dropped from a high of $119 per barrel to $85. Stocks surged.
But just as Wall Street seemed confident that it had another case of “TACO” on its hands, Trump struck a different tone. “We have won in many ways, but not enough,” the president said in a speech in Florida hours later. “We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.”
Then at a press conference afterward, Trump threatened major action if the Islamic Republic continued to try to choke off the world’s energy supply. “We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world,” he said.
So what is Trump likely to do? Matt Pottinger worked closely with the president on national security during his first term and thinks reports of the war’s imminent end are greatly exaggerated. Drawing on his experiences in the White House, Pottinger explains why he thinks this war will continue for weeks, not days.
Before Monday’s mixed messages came Friday’s demand from Trump of nothing less than “unconditional surrender” from Tehran. That, argues the political scientist Francis Fukuyama, is not likely to come anytime soon. Iran gets a say in this war, too—and if Washington is going to insist on complete capitulation, we could be in for a long fight. All of which is why Fukuyama thinks the president’s rhetoric is “very foolish.” Read his column on why Iran won’t surrender, and why Trump’s demand that it does is so dangerous.
In our third story on Iran, Aaron MacLean looks at the unenviable position of Mojtaba Khamenei, the nepo-baby mullah who was announced as his dad’s successor on Sunday. Trump, who had previously said he wanted a role in picking the country’s next leader, said he was “not happy” with the choice. Ominously for Khamenei, Trump added: “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
MacLean looks at those prospects in his latest analysis of the conflict. “Full-on paranoia has never been more justified than for Iran’s new hard-line top man,” writes Aaron. If he were counseling the Ayatollah, his advice would be to stay away from laptops, smartphones, or any kind of personal tech. Read his column on why Mojtaba’s hardest job will be surviving.
—Oliver Wiseman
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Arthur Brooks: I Live with My Grandchildren. You Should Too. | ||||
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Say It with Me Now: Open Marriages Never Work | ||||
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Taiwan Can Rescue the World from China | ||||
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Why Grad Students at Columbia May Go on Strike | ||||
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