Although I am a political absurdist, have dire concerns about the mental health of adults with imaginary friends who believe in biblical apocalypses (and demons, for pity's sake), and think that the ICE gestapo have been at minimum badly conceived (and are probably just a machine to murder-intimidate lesbian feminists) I think Harris' appraisal of Trump's administration is overly negative and skewed by emotional ick factor.
Sam Harris: “Jihadism plus nuclear weapons is always a deal-breaker.”
Harris makes the case for war with Iran—despite reservations about the “incompetent, corrupt, amoral” leaders carrying it out.
“The people running Iran really are a death cult of the sort we see in groups… pic.twitter.com/utQeH8Nvcm— Conversations with Coleman (@ConvoswColeman) March 23, 2026
I am very anti-war, and yet:
- @realDonaldTrump acted when Biden should have acted rather than just saying 'Don't'
- Trump was right when he said that someone should have acted militarily a long time ago
- @realDonaldTrump is absolutely (and obviously) right when he says that Iran's IRGC are violent fanatics who cannot ever be allowed to have nukes
- @SecWar Hegseth has a fideist-theist, delusional worldview (if he's not faking it) which I find idiotic and appalling. Nevertheless, he seems to be working with @CENTCOM, @US_SpaceCom, @AFSpecOpsCmd, @AFGlobalStrike, and @US5thFleet in a highly effective and professional way. Either that or the
@thejointstaff and @centcomcdr are very good at making him look good.
Extending the principle of charity, I'd say Hegseth's the consummate professional soldier and exactly in his element as a warrior statesman. I've seen a lot of left wing slagging of his efforts in press conferences about the Iran interdiction/intervention, but in my view he and General Dan Caine have been consummate professionals and in fairly masterful control of all such speaking engagements.
Moreover, and more importantly: the administration and the military couldn't possibly be as defective as Harris says and still pull off not one, but two of the most successful high-powered military interdictions in the history of the world. Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury may sound like hyperbole, but - except for the tragic death of 180 Iranian schoolchildren (which is the IRGC's fault for starting something anyway) - the two operations have been astonishingly effective and the word 'epic' is about right to describe them as achievements. It's horrible to talk about warfighting in such a way, but they stand as epic achievements nonetheless.
I haven't ever seen or heard of anything like them.
No one has.
The ultimately illegal and unethical Operation Desert Storm was a precursor which definitely provided a glimpse of what was to come, but even it's efficacy doesn't compare with Midnight Hammer+Epic Fury which is something completely new.
To conduct two separate operations, one large and the other enormous, involving the dual-destruction of an entire large, well-armed military power's entire nuclear and missile arsenal, the destruction of their entire navy, destruction of 8000+ targets and counting, and total control of their airspace is a monumental and completely unprecedented achievement.
Moreover this was done with the first operation being a potential way for the enemy to learn how to handle the second one eight months later. Furthermore, it was done with the loss of only four US aircraft, three of which were lost to friendly fire. Technically, that's 8000+ targets down with massive attrition of Iran's missile capability (degraded ~90%), and with technically zero combat losses of US aircraft.
We'll let history determine if the Gerald R. Ford was struck by an Iranian missile or by a laundry fire and blocked toilets. (Personally I suspect the Iranians managed to hit it with a wild shot, but it is by no means sunk.) However, whether The Gerald R was hit by Iranians or by a laundry fire, Epic Fury has been truly epic in multiple, measurable ways, and could not possibly have been executed by administrative, nor military, incompetents.
If nothing else,
very much appears to know how to unleash and enable people in his administration and under his command, and then take their advice and get out of their way. That's not incompetence.
