With Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sitting to his right in the golden White House, a reporter asked why President Trump did not give advanced notice to Japan and other allies of the US-Israeli attack on Iran. “We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?” Takaichi, seen here just before suppressed cringe, has declined Trump’s request for Japanese Self-Defense Force ships to escort commercial vessels in the Middle East. [From White House video]
•Six months ago the US Navy under the Trump administration decommissioned its six Avenger-class minesweepers off the coast of Bahrain in what The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last calls an “oopsie” by our “low-IQ president” (subscription required). Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett offers a counterpoint in today’s right column.
FRIDAY 3/20/26
More Marines to Middle East – The Pentagon is sending three warships and thousands of additional Marines to the Middle East, US officials told The Wall Street Journal, with 2,200 to 2,500 or so Marines from the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group headed to Central Command. An earlier deployment of Marines to the region has sparked speculation the Pentagon is preparing to invade Karg Island, where Iran stores up to 30 million barrels of oil for export.
Defiance … “Safety must be taken away” from Iran’s enemies and their armed forces, the country’s new leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement. He vowed to pursue Iran’s enemies even in tourist spots, the WSJ reports.
LNG facilities … Qatar says Iran’s strikes on its liquid natural gas facilities reduced export capacity by 17%, and it will take three to five years to repair.
Cover from Netanyahu … “Israel acted alone on the Asaluyeh gas compound,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday. President Trump asked Israel to hold off from future attacks on Iran’s oil infrastructure, he said.
Meanwhile, Israel is trying to help the US reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, Netanyahu said.
Pushback … Netanyahu also has pushed back on criticism that Israel has led the US into the war on Iran.
“Does anyone really think President Trump can be told what to do?” Netanyahu said. “C’mon.”
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Democracy Falling – The United States fell from “liberal democracy” to “electoral democracy+” for 2025 in V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report 2026, “Unraveling the Democratic Era?” The report says “autocratization now affects well-established democracies, leading to a significant decline in their overall quality.”
Sweden’s V-Dem also ranks the United Kingdom with the US in declining to electoral democracy+, joining Brazil, Canada, Gambia and Israel in the category. Countries remaining in the Liberal Democracy category include Australia, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Sweden, South Korea and Switzerland.
But the total number of liberal democratic countries has fallen.
“Liberal democracies – now the least common regime type in the world – decline in numbers from the peak of 45 in 2009 to 31 in 2025. In the same period, the number of electoral democracies increases from 46 to 56.”
Autocracies are on the upswing, unfortunately, “from a minimum of 82 in 2004 to 92 now.”
V-Dem counts among electoral autocracies, Bosnia Herzegovina, Mexico, Egypt, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Russia, Iraq and Iran. Closed autocracies include Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Cuba, Haiti, Hong Kong, Myanmar, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
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March 20 AAA National Average Unleaded Regular: $3.912 per gallon, +2.8 cents over Thursday and up 93 cents over February 27. Diesel: $5.159 per gallon, +6 cents over Thursday and up $1.942 over February 27. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa