More Bombing Won’t Stop Iran From Turning Into a Quagmire

 

Must Reads for July 28, 2026 More Bombing Won’t Stop Iran From Turning Into a Quagmire WILLIAM T. DOWELL A quick look at Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran crisis gives the impression of a trapped bird trying to escape an enclosure by flying through a plate-glass window. After it’s knocked to the ground several times, the bird must know that escape is impossible, but it keeps on trying because it can’t think of an alternative.  The glass window in Trump’s case is a potentially fatal refusal to accept the fact that starting a war with Iran was not only unnecessary but was also a much riskier and more costly enterprise than he imagined.  Trump believed that bombing Iran back to the Stone Age would produce results; it didn’t. Now that Trump wants to put the war behind him, he can’t.  A major obstacle to a quick resolution is Trump’s global reputation as a compulsive liar. As the Iranians see it, no treaty or agreement that the US government signs can be trusted for very long. The word of the Trump administration, in short, is essentially worthless.  Before Iran can agree to a lasting peace, it needs a concrete guarantee that the US won’t simply resume bombing and murdering its leaders at a later date. Under Trump, the US has twice launched surprise attacks against Iran while pretending to negotiate a truce. The only guarantee at the moment that the US won’t go back on its word again is Iran’s ability to block the Strait of Hormuz — one of the paramount routes for bringing oil from the Middle East to industrial countries around the world.  Read the full story here. Today's Cartoon Editors’ Picks Share Tweet Forward PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org. Environmental Groups Urge EPA To Reject New Forever Chemical To Cool Data Centers (Maria) The author writes, “A coalition of 17 environmental groups is demanding the Environmental Protection Agency reject a new PFAS that chemical giant Chemours is attempting to fast track approval of for cooling data centers, which would almost certainly pollute surrounding regions. The groups accuse Chemours of using bad science to downplay the chemical’s toxicity and climate risks. Approving the application would violate the law, Earthjustice legal nonprofit wrote.”   Why Trump Wants You to Think All Dissent Is a “Conspiracy” (Sean) From Mother Jones: “According to President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, you may be a member of a criminal conspiracy if you have done any of the following: worn black to a demonstration, given face masks to protesters, joined a book club, distributed a zine. Recently, federal prosecutors have cited these actions as evidence that activists protesting Trump’s deportation machine are part of an organized criminal enterprise. Call it antifa, domestic terrorism, the radical left — in Trump’s eyes, dissent is never organic. It’s all just part of one big ‘conspiracy.’ Over the past year, prosecutors have increasingly levied conspiracy charges against activists in federal indictments from Chicago to Spokane, Washington. Some of these cases crumbled quickly; others, like the government’s attempt to paint leftist activists in Texas as an ‘antifa cell,’ resulted in shocking convictions.”   As Trump Boosts Nuclear Power, Regulators Seek To Eliminate a Longstanding Radiation Safety Practice (Reader Steve) The author writes, “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to eliminate a foundational safety principle that has for 50 years minimized the radiation people in the United States are exposed to and that has been adopted around the world. Currently, facilities such as nuclear plants, hospitals or academic institutions that use radioactive materials must ensure radiation exposures are kept ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ — the ALARA principle. The NRC proposal would abandon that philosophy while keeping a separate standard on maximum radiation exposure. The two standards have worked together in radiation safety. Dose limits set the maximum amount of radiation the public and radiation workers can be exposed to, while ALARA kept radiation exposure as low as practical under those limits. Research shows radiation exposure increases a person’s chance of getting cancer.”   Proportional Representation Gets a New Look (DonkeyHotey) From The American Prospect: “Two developments over the past year have elevated the importance of election reform. The gerrymandering war initiated by Donald Trump and the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Voting Rights Act have raised doubts about old strategies for fair redistricting maps and minority political representation. As a result, attention is turning to an electoral alternative that could achieve a fairer and more inclusive politics: proportional representation, the electoral system used in a majority of democracies but long dismissed as a fringe idea in the United States. That ‘fringe’ idea can no longer be so easily dismissed.”   The Right-Wing War on Solidarity Comes to Campus (Dana) From The New Republic: “On July 13, a conservative legal organization, the Legal Insurrection Foundation, filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Connecticut claiming that providing Black and Latino residential learning communities amounts to unconstitutional racial preferences. The filing is the latest front in the right’s ever-expanding campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. What began as a challenge to affirmative action in college admissions has grown into a sweeping effort to dismantle diversity offices, race-conscious scholarships, employee affinity groups, and educational programs that acknowledge the continuing significance of race in American life.”   Man Who Ended Up in the ICU Sues Over ChatGPT Advice (Reader Jim) The author writes, “A Florida pastor says an AI chatbot gave him medical advice that could have ended up killing him. In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Wednesday, pastor Scott Winters alleges that in 2024, ChatGPT-4o downplayed weeks of worsening dizziness, urged him to skip the hospital despite family pleas, and told him he should stay off his feet in a recliner. ‘God did not design your body to endlessly fail,’ it allegedly told him, the New York Times reports. The advice allegedly culminated in July 2025, when the bot told him new groin pain was ‘very likely’ minor; hours later, he was in intensive care with a significant pulmonary embolism. Per the suit, Winters’ doctors indicated the dizzy spells may have been brought on by smaller pulmonary embolisms that formed during the weeks he had spent sitting.”   ‘Literally Growing the Future’: Volunteers Help Save Scottish Rainforest by Collecting 11M Seeds (Laura) The author writes, “A small band of volunteers has helped to grow nearly 8m native trees in Scotland, crucial to efforts to restore lost parts of the Atlantic rainforest, after collecting 11m seeds by hand. About 100 volunteers, including retired teachers and doctors, office workers and young families, have spent tens of thousands of hours venturing into often remote woods in the western Highlands and islands to search out seed-bearing trees. 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