JOE’S NOTE
Around 4 a.m. Saturday, workers quietly placed a plaque on a U.S. Capitol wall to commemorate the police officers brutalized by the mob of Jan. 6, 2021. No announcement. No ceremony. No cameras.
Republicans didn’t have the courage to publicly honor the officers who protected them.
Several of those officers later died, and MAGA voices still denying a connection between those deaths and the Jan. 6 riots should talk to their families. Start with Brian Sicknick’s mother and brother, who were angered by Trump’s pardons of the rioters and the GOP’s reluctance to honor the 174 police officers who were injured that day.
“What did he die for?” his mother asked in Washington on the fifth anniversary of the attacks.
The plaque was approved in 2023, but Republicans delayed its placement out of fear of angering Donald Trump and his most radical supporters.
Imagine that.
Officers who bravely fought off a violent mob have been abandoned by the very politicians whose lives they fought to save.
House Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly blocked the effort. What a sad legacy to leave behind.
It was Sen. Thom Tillis who finally stepped up, placing the plaque on the Senate side. That’s why the tribute exists there and not in a permanent, prominent location — because Mike Johnson is still too afraid of Donald Trump to do the right thing.
Another example of Republican cowardice in the age of Trump.
CHART OF THE DAY
GLOBAL MARKETS IN TURMOIL
Wall Street and overseas markets tumbled today — from Tokyo to London — as the Iran war slammed energy markets and sent investors rushing for safety.
Wall Street trading started on an especially sour note this morning, with the Dow opening down more than 600 points as oil prices blew past $100 a barrel for the first time in years.
World markets, including Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s KOSPI, fell sharply, dragging global futures with them as traders brace for more economic turmoil ahead as the war in Iran drags into its second week.
With the war choking off a key artery for Middle East oil and gas in the Strait of Hormuz, crude prices are turning sharply higher while recession fears rise for energy‑importing economies across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
The dollar’s recent surge is also tightening financial conditions worldwide, while gas prices in America are up almost 17% in the week since the war began.
ON THIS DATE
In 1959, Barbie was first introduced by Mattel at the American Toy Fair. Here’s the toy’s inventor, Ruth Handler, posing with a collection of the iconic dolls.
A CONVERSATION WITH RET. GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY
JS: General, grade the U.S. military’s operations this first week. Have they been successful?
BM: Absolutely. The campaign’s had a devastating impact on Iran. Its air defense system has been nearly destroyed, and U.S. and Israeli forces now have total air dominance. With more than 2,000 targets already struck, operations have shifted from standoff attacks to bomber runs — B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s using JDAM-equipped bombs, which are causing massive damage.
It’s astonishing that no U.S. or Israeli aircraft have been lost. Most of Iran’s navy and air force are gone.
What Tehran has left, though, is economic leverage through oil and the threat of terrorism. America reopening the Strait of Hormuz for safe naval transit will be extremely risky. U.S. ships don’t like confined waters.
JS: Given your lifetime of experience, are you surprised the United States completely controls the skies over Tehran?
BM: It shows how dramatically technology has changed. Both the U.S. and Israel now deploy F-35 stealth fighters capable of operating even against advanced air defenses. Add in the Navy’s Tomahawk missiles, which strike with pinpoint accuracy, and you have an entirely new kind of warfare — though, as we saw in the tragic attack on the girls’ school, precision still depends on good intelligence.
The administration has wisely kept ground forces out, and I think that will remain the case. Iran is a huge country of 90 million people; regime change by air alone isn’t realistic, and I doubt we’ll try it on the ground.
JS: What impact will Iran’s new supreme-leader selection of Mojtaba Khamenei have on the direction of this war?
BM: He’s deeply tied to the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and has personally suffered enormous family loss. His father, mother, and brother were killed by U.S. strikes. That makes engagement with the future government even harder. I expect to see Iran turn to reliance on oil leverage and terrorism rather than diplomacy.
JS: The Weinberger and Powell Doctrines emphasized the need for public support and a clear exit strategy before going to war. How concerned are you that the president entered this conflict without either?
BM: Very. We tell officers at the War College that before going to war, define the political objective and then build military options to achieve it. That hasn’t been done here. Militarily, degrading Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities is valuable, but without clear end goals, success is uncertain.
JS: If the president ends the operation soon — without regime change — would you still call it a military success?
BM: That depends on what comes next. As Gen. [David] Petraeus famously said, “Tell me how this ends.”
Iran could become a failed state. The population is divided — about half Persian, half minorities — and much of it despises the regime. The IRGC won’t easily relinquish power, so an internal conflict is possible.
Militarily, Iran’s threat to its neighbors may be much diminished, but if we can’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz soon, the global economic fallout will be severe.
We can’t keep U.S. forces there indefinitely.
JS: General Barry McCaffrey, thank you for your time and your service to our country.
EXTRA HOT TEA
5 hours
—Estimated wait time at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport yesterday, as Transportation Security Administration staff shortages from the partial government shutdown brought security lines to a crawl.
ONE MORE SHOT
Shota Morishita of Team Japan avoids a pitch in the eighth inning during his team’s game against Australia during the 2026 World Baseball Classic yesterday in Tokyo.
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
