The Wall Street Journal has unearthed a big secret!
Iran’s Secret Plan to Escalate the War – WSJ, Aug 16 2026
Intercepted communications and other intelligence suggest a strategic shift by hard-line leaders to raise the costs for the U.S. and its regional allies
Arab intelligence officials have picked up evidence—including communications between Iran and militia allies in countries such as Yemen and Iraq—of a strategic shift inside the country’s hard-line leadership to get their forces ready to widen the war and raise the costs for the U.S., officials familiar with the findings say.
Funny how this blogger, without any contacts to ‘Arab intelligence officials’ (i.e. Israeli sources), could read Iranian media and publish a similar finding two days before the WSJ’s ‘secret’:
Iran has announced that its new strategy is to go offensive:
.. “The definite strategy of the Leader to make the war offensive if Iran’s conditions are not fulfilled will undoubtedly change the equations of power in the world,” [adviser to the Leader Mohammad] Mokhber wrote.
Its options to do so?
It could finally start to directly attack those U.S. ships which try to blockade the country. It could launch drones against any place in the Middle East that houses U.S. military. There are also many U.S. companies which operate in the Gulf countries.
Trump orders military to ‘substantially reduce’ joint exercises with South Korea – NBC News
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has directed the Defense Department to scale down joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the U.S. ally’s refusal to join the war in Iran and his “very good” relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Trump said the large, annual military drills sent a “signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, a nuclear-armed state with which the U.S. has no formal diplomatic ties but which Trump says has been “unthreatening and respectful” as long as he has been president.
The reason Trump is giving for reducing the military maneuvers with South Korea is not serious. No country but Israel has seriously joined the U.S. in its War on Iran.
There is something else going on.
A reduction or end to U.S. maneuvers with South Korea has often been a pre-condition by North Korea for entering into talks.
Trump’s statement is therefore likely an opener for negotiations over some kind of peace agreement with North Korea.
Trump may hope for a fast ‘victory’ as peace-makers before the midterm elections. Unfortunately he and his stooges are incapable of doing the methodical work necessary, and of offering the serious concessions needed, to get any results.
Iran Nuances @IranNuances – 12:38 UTC · Aug 17, 2026
#Iran FM Spox says ongoing #Oman talks have yielded an understanding on a shipping transit route map, to be finalized alongside a joint statement. He said delay is due to the issue’s immense complexity, multiple interfering actors, and destructive parties.
What might have given Iran those ‘wrong’ impressions?
Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of US-Iran talks – USAToday
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” Trump told Fox News in an Aug. 17 phone interview, according to Trey Yingst, the network’s chief foreign correspondent who talked to the president.
Oman, as well as South Korea, are supposedly U.S. allies. Bashing them, as well as others in Europe, as Trump has been doing, is a sure way to lose their long-term support.
As Dennis Citrinowicz summarizes:
America’s greatest strategic asset has never been its military alone. China and Russia must largely rely on their own power. The United States possesses something much more difficult to replicate: a global network of allies willing to align their security with Washington because they believe American commitments are credible.
If those allies begin to doubt that assumption, American power does not merely become less popular. It becomes structurally weaker. That may ultimately prove to be the most consequential strategic cost of the war with Iran.
I for one see no loss in that.