America’s Success Against Iran May Prove a Distraction
Ukraine gives us a preview of the future of warfare. Our leaders would be wise to learn its lessons.
ET
Thursday, April 16, 2026
The Gulf conflict demonstrates what American forces can achieve from a position of strength. Ukraine has shown what war looks like from a more vulnerable position, when that strength is contested at scale. The performance of our forces should inspire confidence. The lessons of Ukraine should instill urgency. We will need both.
Progressivism was the first mainstream American political movement—with the possible exception of the pro-slavery reactionaries on the eve of the Civil War—to openly oppose the principles of the Declaration. Progressives strove to undo the Declaration’s commitment to equality and natural rights, both of which they denied were self-evident. To Wilson, the inalienable rights of the individual were “a lot of nonsense.” Wilson redefined “liberty” not as a natural right antecedent to the government, but as “the right of those who are governed to adjust government to their own needs and interests.” In other words, liberty no longer preceded the government as a gift from God, but was to be enjoyed at the grace of the government. The government, as Wilson reconceived of it, would be “beneficent and indispensable.” Progressives such as John Dewey attacked the Framers for believing that “their ideas [were] immutable truths good at all times and places,” when instead they were “historically conditioned, and relevant only to their own time.” Now, Dewey and the progressives argued, those ideas were to be repealed.
Justice Thomas: Progressives vs. the Declaration
Woodrow Wilson’s ideas are opposed to the basic American creed. They can’t coexist forever.
ET
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of remarks Justice Clarence Thomas delivered Wednesday at the University of Texas, Austin, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence:
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Mr. Orban’s defeat is not nearly the end of the story, not even in Hungary, where his allies will continue to work in many parts of government. But his defeat is significant. Many people assumed he was unbeatable. He was Vladimir Putin’s biggest ally inside the European Union and the original 21st-century model of Western illiberalism. Mr. Trump openly admired him, and Vice President JD Vance traveled to Hungary last week to campaign for him. Mr. Magyar thoroughly defeated this far-right giant. The free world should take an honest look at how he did it.
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Would the U.S. really go ahead and start an incident with China by boarding or worse yet shooting at a Chinese vessel in the Strait of Hormuz?
What the Naval Blockade of Iran Might Look Like
The U.S. military has provided few details on how it might carry out President Trump’s orders as he seeks to pressure Tehran on a peace deal. But history and established practices offer some clues.
As a naval officer, John Ismay boarded tankers smuggling oil in the Persian Gulf and passed through the Strait of Hormuz several times on warships in 2000, 2009 and 2010. He reported from Washington.
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