Escobar served honorably for four years in the Air Force. Following his time as a skilled F-15 Fighter Jet mechanic, he contributed to military justice, assisting attorneys in upholding military discipline. He recently founded a company called True College with a mission to help low-income students navigate the college application process.
“I, Isaiah Escobar, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Since the founding of this nation, this very same oath of enlistment has been taken by countless Americans who served this country. There was a time when this oath was unable to be said by women, and there was a time when this oath was said by a minority population that was segregated and seen differently in the eyes of the law. Nevertheless, these Americans, these protectors of their nation, have fought and died to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As well, these brave Americans have obeyed the orders of their commander and chief. The President.
Our duty as service members is to defend the freedoms granted to us by the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other sacred documents written by the founders of the United States.
But what happens when these words and laws stated in such sacred documents come under attack? What happens when these documents become obsolete and the ideals in them are called “fake news?" Also, the most disturbing question is: what happens when the Commander and Chief pose a threat to the legitimacy and standing of such documents that military members took an oath to defend?
What happened at the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021, has truly made me sad and deeply disappointed. Not only does the Capitol Building represent one of our three branches of government, but it also represents the citizens of the United States of America, whom I, once again, took an oath to defend.
America, like any other nation in the world, is not perfect. But, for centuries, America has been a beacon and a leader in the ideals and principles of freedom, justice, and democracy. What transpired in our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, should frighten us all and serve as a lesson as we approach the presidential election of 2024. What happened at the Capitol Building was not simply another political act. It was an attack on our democracy.
We must learn from this tragedy, which, like Pearl Harbor, will be remembered as a day which will live in infamy. If we don’t, I believe the country I love will cease to be a country of liberty, justice, and democracy. This should not be thought of as a political statement. It is instead a statement of defending and protecting our constitution and protecting freedom, justice, and our democratic republic. Don’t be misled by those who speak of freedom yet refuse to accept the rule of law. Free, fair and secure elections are the backbone of our democratic republic. Only if all Americans, whether from the left, center or right stand up for the Constitution will our nation be free of injustice and prejudice.
The deadliest war in our country’s history was the Civil War. 498,332 American citizens died in that war. This war was fought because a large portion of the country’s population was opposed to applying the same freedoms and principles granted to the majority to the minority. The nation was split then, and it scares me to say that I believe this nation is possibly just as split today.
Yet, I believe we can recover from this if We the People pledge to uphold the rule of law and defend and protect our democracy. Democracy is not a partisan issue.
image of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square in New York on April 8, 2026.
Trump is stuck between two realities. Neither serves the American people
Normally, I worry that events may overtake a column. But not so with the Iran war.
I don’t worry about running afoul of a headline or Truth Social post from the president because what is said about the situation is no longer very relevant to the reality.
On April 8, Nick Catoggio, my Dispatch colleague, dubbed an earlier stoppage with Iran “Schrödinger’s ceasefire.” This was a reference to the famous thought experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who was trying to explain the weirdness of “superpositionality” in quantum physics. A cat in a box is both dead and alive at the same time until you open the box. Schrödinger meant to illustrate the absurdity of the idea that particles aren’t any one thing, but a “cloud of probabilities.”
The Trump administration is stuck in a word cloud of probabilities of his own making. The war is over. The war is on. The war isn’t a war. We have a deal, but we don’t have a deal, but we’re about to have a deal. We destroyed Iran’s military. No, we left it intact. We want regime change. No we don’t. We already accomplished it. We “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program a year ago. We had to go to war in February to prevent nuclear war. The Strait of Hormuz is open, closed, or something in-between. No deal without “unconditional surrender.” Let’s make a deal!
This everything-all-at-once vibe can be disorienting, particularly since most Americans didn’t have a war with Iran on their bingo cards until the shooting had already started. President Trump didn’t prepare the country or consult with Congress beforehand because he thought it would all be a smashing success in a matter of weeks.
The miscalculation that started it all: killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of Iran’s senior leadership, on the first day of the war. To “the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump announced on Feb. 28. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
I support regime change in Iran and shed no tears for Khamenei or his goons. But when you start a war by killing the regime’s top leaders, it’s not unreasonable for the remaining ones to conclude that you really intend regime change.
Khamenei was a murderous fanatic, but he was a fairly cautious one. He liked to threaten closing the Strait of Hormuz or attacking our regional allies, but he was reluctant to actually do it, fearing it would invite a regime change war. The mullahs and IRGC goons believed, not unreasonably, that if they lost their grip on power, they’d be lynched by the Iranian people they’ve brutalized for decades.
By starting with a regime change war, Trump removed any reason for the regime not to go for broke. When you have nothing to lose — particularly when you are a millenarian religious fanatic — a Persian Alamo strategy makes a lot of sense.
So Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked its neighbors.
But it turns out this wasn’t the Alamo. In the contest of wills, Trump blinked. The Iranian regime’s tolerance for punishment proved — so far — to be greater than Trump’s and that of our gulf allies. Militarily we could finish the job, but that would require ground troops and much greater economic turmoil. In a conflict Trump launched unilaterally without the prior support of Congress, NATO or the American people, Trump doesn’t have the political capital for that.
But that’s only half the problem. Trump wants the war over, but he doesn’t want to pay — militarily, economically, politically — what that would cost. So he wants to make a deal that ends it. But there is no deal available that wouldn’t come at an equally undesirable cost. Any deal that looks like what President Obama struck with the Iranians would be too embarrassing to bear. But the Iranians are convinced that they can get just such a deal, and they’re willing to drag things out as long as it takes.
The result: Trump’s in a box of his own making. He thinks he can talk his way out by simply asserting a reality that doesn’t exist. When the financial markets get nervous, he announces a breakthrough that is, at best, a possibility. When the Iranians agree to a deal that looks similar to one Obama might negotiate, Trump goes back to his threats.
It can’t go on forever. But I’m sure it’ll last until long after this column is forgotten.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.