UFC USA FREEDOM 250

Today there is a UFC event at the White House promoting USA 250.

At the same time, reports suggest an agreement may be signed between Iran and elements of the opposition.

If Iran is signing heading into July 4th, whoever advised them may not have understood the leverage they possessed.

You know there was leverage because POTUS repeatedly referenced “total annihilation” as a possibility. Yet whenever that rhetoric appears, it often ends with an off-ramp rather than escalation.

As POTUS himself noted, there wasn’t much left to bomb.

So the sequence becomes interesting:

Iran was threatened following what many would argue was an unforced error by the U.S. military.

Then the administration used maximum pressure rhetoric before ultimately finding an exit ramp just in time to celebrate USA 250.

The question is whether this was a demonstration of strength—or simply a negotiation that was an off ramp of a major unforced error.