Ep. 101: 9/11 in 2026
Hey FRs,
Today marks 25 years since 9/11. If you were alive in 2001, where you were when the planes hit the towers is seared into your memory. It was a horrifying tragedy that simultaneously brought out the best and worst in humanity. On this week's show, we decided to look back at some of the decisions that were made after that day, decisions that marked a definitive turning point in how the US is perceived around the world. Spoiler alert: it hasn't gone well.
What did 25 years of post-9/11 war actually cost?
Approximately $8 trillion and roughly 940,000 people killed by direct violence across Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan between 2001 and 2023. That's more than 300 times the death toll of 9/11 itself. Add 38 million people displaced, $2.4 trillion funneled to private contractors, and a veteran suicide rate that outpaced combat deaths after both wars ended.
If you want to go down a dark rabbit hole, Brown University's Costs of War project has the full accounting.
Did Netanyahu know about October 7th beforehand?!!
He sure did, according to a new Haaretz investigation. The report claims UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed personally called Netanyahu roughly ten days before the attack (via a secure phone delivered by a diplomat!!!) and warned him in a 45-minute conversation that Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation.
Netanyahu reportedly reacted calmly and told no one. He has denied the claim and threatened to sue the paper, but the pattern is familiar: a leader receives a specific warning, chooses inaction, then "governs" the aftermath. Whether that's negligence or something more grossly opportunistic is the question Israeli society is now being forced to sit with.
What actually happened in the Nepal glacier collapse?
A Himalayan glacier broke off at roughly 5,200 meters on August 26th, sending an estimated 1,200 tons of ice and debris through central Nepal in an event that registered as a 5.2 magnitude seismic reading. Nepali police are reporting over 1,300 confirmed dead and nearly 5,000 still missing, with numbers still climbing.
This isn't a distant abstraction from a climate report. It's a glacier failing in real time. The tragedy comes a month after intelligence agencies confirmed that ecosystem collapse is now a national security threat.
Why won't the Pentagon call the Iran conflict a war?
That depends on how cynical you are, but calling it a war triggers benefit obligations the administration doesn't want to pay, so you make the call. At a White House press conference, JD Vance was asked directly about Alex Kliner, an airman killed when his plane went down over western Iraq. His widow and three children are struggling to access survivor benefits because the conflict has never been officially declared a war. Vance offered condolences and a promise to "work it on the back end." 🤮
No commitment, no timeline, no acknowledgment that the classification itself is the obstacle. The war costs roughly $1 billion a day. The widow gets an empty promise from a dipshit.
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