Alan Zendell, July 30, 2026

At first glance, today’s announcement that Saudi Arabia had formed a military coalition with fourteen other nations to protect shipping in the Red Sea sounded like it might be a good thing. Donald Trump had clearly gotten the United States into a quagmire that he has no idea how to climb out of, but at least the other Middle Eastern Countries were starting to take responsibility for their own defense.

As Trump’s four (six at most) week war with Iran entered its sixth month and involved seventeen countries as of July 29^th, it was obvious that U. S. forces couldn’t keep defending them all on their own. We should all be thankful that our generation has its own version of Daniel Elsberg, the man who blew the whistle on how the Pentagon was mishandling the Vietnam War. Whoever they are, and I’m certain there must be more than one, leaking the concerns of Joint Chiefs Chairman Daniel Caine might be the act that saves us, assuming it’s not already too late for that.

It is now accepted fact throughout the news media that the United States military is expending it highly sophisticated munitions and missile interceptor systems at a rate no one had planned for. If you’re not sure how important that revelation is, all you have to do is listen to Trump rage about executing the leaker. We have already had to relocate munitions from other commands to re-stock inventories around the Persian Gulf. If that’s not a warning siren, I can’t imagine what is. Another warning siren was the emergency supplemental budget request of $88 billion, which is intended to fund rapid remanufacture of the munitions in short supply. But the delivery window for some of the more sophisticated weapons is as long as four years.

Trump’s incompetent handling of the war would be comical if the consequences weren’t so serious. We’re at this juncture because Trump allowed his delusions of grandeur to direct his actions, and the spineless Republicans in Congress won’t lift a finger to stop him. That’s beyond shocking, because regardless of their public pronouncements, most of them are pretty sharp. They can’t fail to see that Trump is leading our country and likely the entire world down a path to destruction. Trump is badly stuck between a dozen rocks and hard places, and all his bluster over massive attacks on Iran was shown to be empty by the revelation that if we don’t start conserving weapons, we risk our military positions all over the world.

Viewed in that light, the new Saudi-led military alliance takes on a different appearance. More than anything it demonstrates that Trump has completely lost control of the Iran War. His obsession with holding onto power after the November elections, to the extent that he is exhausting every legal weapon to try to control the outcome, is visible to the entire world. So are the polls that show Americans want out of this war by nearly a three-to-one margin, and that their disapproval of every aspect of Trump’s presidency is at an unprecedented level. Iran’s leaders know this. Russia and China’s leaders know this. Europe and the rest of the Middle East know it, too. Now Iran can go on the offensive, knowing that every cheap missile and drone they fire at American or allied interests will mean another barrage of Patriot Missiles fired to intercept them. Iran doesn’t care about hitting their targets. They’ve found Trump’s soft underbelly, and they’re going to attack it every way they can.

The greatest risk is that if Trump no longer can control the outcome of hostilities, he also has no control over either their escalation or spread. That made me re-think my reaction to the new Saudi coalition. One of the fourteen nations that have agreed to join is Turkey, which is a NATO member. Does that mean that NATO could be dragged into the conflict if Iran strikes at Turkish interests? NATO has made it extremely clear that they want no part of the Iran War, and while everyone is watching Trump choke on his own bile, Russia and Ukraine are greatly escalating their own war, which yesterday spilled over into Poland in the form of a misguided Russian missile.

To date, Chinese leader Xi Jinping had remained publicly neutral about the war, which increases China’s standing each day it continues. But behind the scenes, China is supplying Iran with critical military equipment, and was planning to deliver several hundred shoulder-mounted missile launchers this week. Those weapons can make a lot of difference for Iran because they’re entirely mobile and thus impossible for our military to track.

As I said, earlier, every Republican in Congess can see what I see. They’re all smart enough to understand where it’s leading. Just ask your favorite science fiction writer: this is the most likely way World War III starts. Why is there no formal action to remove Trump from office before it’s too late, assuming it already isn’t?