Hope for the best.

Expect the worst.

Some drinks can pay, some die of thirst, the way of knowing which way it's going,

hope for the best, expect the worst.

Oh, for the best.

Welcome to the Commentary Magazine Daily podcast.

Today is Tuesday, March 10th, 2026.

I'm John Podhorst, the editor of Commentary Magazine.

With me, as always, Executive Editor A. Greenwald.

Hi, Abe.

Hi, John. Senior editor, Seth, Abe. Hi, John. Senior editor Seth Mandel. Hi, Seth.

Hi, John. Washington Free Beacon editor Eliana Johnson. Hi, Eliana.

Hi, John. And social commentary columnist Christine Rosen. Hi, Christine. Hi, John.

So, uh, Donald Trump gave a press conference preceded by remarks yesterday afternoon and got everybody very confused because before the remarks and before the press conference, he told CBS News that the war was largely complete.

So, of course, we start texting each other.

Seth texted and said, Trump's speaking at 5.30 to declare the war over, question mark.

And just to parse what I think he was saying and then we can talk about

how he said it or what he was saying we we have gotten numbers from CENTCOM that say that

5,000 targets have been hit inside Iran in the last nine days.

And, of course, there was the almost complete destruction of Iran's Navy.

So the idea that we might be running out of targets to hit from the air and that if we define this

conflict as an air war against Iran, that it's going to become increasingly difficult to

...