Welcome to The Cameron Journal Newsletter. Each week, Cameron Lee Cowan wraps up the headlines with commentary, helping you navigate today’s media narratives, how they are affecting our Culture, Lifestyle, and Society.
Update from Cameron
Hello from cloudy, glacial New England. We are defrosting here, and I know because my loafer got stuck in the mud trying to get out of the car today when I was running errands. I also heard the birds this morning. Spring is beginning to spring as we approach the Spring Equinox, and we’re getting more daylight right now, which is also great, even this far north.
I will speak more about this in a the moment, but on a personal note, I, like many of you who lived through the 20 years of the Global War on Terror, are seeing too many parallels. It has been a heavy time lately, and this is after the events in Gaza and events domestically.
Someone on X (formerly known as Twitter) asked where all the “liberals protesting the war were at” and someone remarked that the people who tend to go to protests are overwhelmed and even organizers are stretched thin. Also, with the new threats of violence from government agents like Los Angeles and Minneapolis have given many people who would be protesting a new reason to stay home. More than one oppressive regime has used this same playbook, and now it has been used (again) on the US citizens to repress public outcry. As is often the case in 2026, the outrage is being channeled online, where it is the least effective.
I feel the weight of a new war, too. I feel it in my soul. I didn’t think we could possibly make the same mistake twice, and yet here we are. We’ll get into in the headlines (which is just one mega story today) and go from there, but I’ve seen reactions on social media both on my videos and others. And yes, your feelings are valid.
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The News Narratives of the Week
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Iran, AI, and Drones
I was sitting in the parking lot of a shopping center and thinking about what I was going to write today. I know that I had several things saved, but most of it was about Iran. I’m working on scheduling some experts on the show to talk about end-game scenarios. I’ve been reading open intelligence threads on some alt platforms to get the latest news. On Saturday morning, Tehran was rocked by attacks again from Israel and the United States. The 4-day operation has now been extended for 4 weeks (Trump) or “as long as it takes” (Hegseth). The usual kind of clear messaging we see from The White House (lol).
Anyway, Iran has proven to be far more resilient than the Pentagon was planning on. If they thought that merely killing the Ayatollah Khamenei (and possibly a successor) and 40 top leaders was going to cause the regime to fall, they have badly miscalculated. This week, CNN ran a story where they showed that daily life in Iran hasn’t even slowed down at all. People are still commuting to work and going about their lives. I’ve said that doing anything in Iran would not be easy. Their territory is rugged, and they are surrounded by Mountains on three sides, offensively, this keeps them boxed in (which is why they love to fund a militia) but is excellent for defense. They have been preparing for exactly this moment since the revolution, and certainly since the end of the Iraq-Iran war. Pre-written battle plans have been prepared, important infrastructure has moved underground. They have even managed to paint buildings with paint to look like helicopters and other equipment to waste time and munitions. This is a country with a hardened defensive capability that shows no sign of falling apart anytime soon.
Iran has also shifted strategy. By dragging in other Gulf States into its attack response, Tehran is hoping that the regional pressure on the US will break our resolve and other governments will want out of being associated with the US to avoid further attacks. It’s a smart move, but time will tell if it will pay off.
One of the biggest stories about how warfare is changing over the last several years is the use of cheap, kamikaze drones to perform attacks. Drones were first seen as used by the US to do remote surveillance and later strikes by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, those platforms were large, relatively expensive, and limited. The Obama administration loved these remote drones which could be launched from a wooden gantry from a safe distance, fly to the target (with operator help) perform the mission and return. Often, the drones were being operated by people thousands of miles away from the action. The new drones are cheap and typically are the weapon themselves. Ukraine and Russia have been throwing drones back and forth at each other for years now and in some cases, Ukraine has used them to effective cause destruction for Russia’s expensive platforms like fighters, bombers, and ships. Drones have paralyzed the Black Sea fleet and has significantly scaled back Russia’s air power. Iran has taken a page right out of that playbook with drone attacks against THAAD (advanced radar and targeted systems) in the region, against oil and gas refineries and airports. One theory is that they are getting positions based on ballistic missiles and then destroyed early warning and response systems with drones once the targeting is locked in.
Drone warfare is predicated on two things: volume and production. It has very little to do with the quality of the weapon, as long as it works (somewhat) and you can produce many of them quickly and keep production rates high. Ukraine has learned this the hard way, and now they produce effective drones for under $1,000. Iran’s drones are a bit more sophisticated with a $20,000 price tag, but the interceptors that the US and the Gulf States are using cost far more and Iran has plenty of drones and can build more.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that both the US and the Gulf States are running low on munitions. President Trump and others have already announced production increases in other kinds of weapons because the superb stuff needs months and years to ramp up production beyond current production levels. Bearing also, that we’re still supporting Ukraine who expends our entire national artillery shell capacity every month. The US finds itself on the other side of where it was during World War II when Germany had the best tanks in the world, but they were slow to build and slower to repair. Meanwhile, the US made the Sherman who was blocky, ugly, slower and less armored but more effective because it was more reliable, cheaper and faster to build and required less maintenance than the German Panzers.
In this insightful Substack article, we learn a little more about drone warfare and if the Gulf States should have invested in drone detection and destruction as well as armies of drones. As a side note on drone warfare, this also indicates that China’s recent pivot to drones and drone carriers shows incredible foresight on the part of Beijing. China sees the future and its drones, not more expensive weapons platforms. Although, China has stopped over-flying Taiwan recently in a change of posture.
The other aspect of this that I find most interesting is how Claude AI was used to locate 1000 targets within Iran and is being used to choose the targets. Iran responded by bombing and AWS data center in Abu Dhabi, which caused Claude to be offline for most of last week. Again, Iran isn’t stupid. They also aren’t stupid on understanding that the new style of war is on every front, including economic. By “closing” or at least threatening the Straight of Hormuz with 20% of the world’s oil supply, they are putting the squeeze onto the global economy. By bombing refineries (which take years to rebuild) they are starving the Gulf States of ready cash from oil exports and the world from supplies of oil and gas. The price of oil spiked up to $90 this week for the first time since 2003….you know…the last time we decided to bomb a country unilaterally in the Middle East. Obviously, the US has also responded with economic tactics as well and has volunteered and fund insurance for ships going through the Straight of Hormuz and is considering ship escorts in the area. Ships are easy cannon fodder for Iran’s drones and missiles.
The war has escalated, Tehran isn’t open to talks (their words) and they are expanding the war which basically plunged the region into a war stretching from Oman at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula to Tel Aviv in the north. And on top of all of that, Israel has annexed more land in Lebanon to create a “security buffer zone.” Attacks by Hezbollah have increased once again, with clashes in newly occupied areas of southern Lebanon. Kurdish fighters in Iraq are potentially being drafted for a ground campaign against Iran as well.
It’s full on war on every level. Because of the importance of this region, the entire world will be dragged into this conflict at some point. However, this conflict isn’t without its supporters either, there are still people who think that this could be a good thing and that we are preventing a bigger conflict from breaking out.
It is important to remember that this is primarily a war for Israel and its desire to take Iran off the map. Over the past week, my colleagues over at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have been doing the press rounds because Hegseth has let a new narrative drop: President Trump has been anointed by God to bring about the end times so that Christ can return, Christians can be raptured, and end the world ushering in 1000 years of peace before the final judgment. For those of us who grew up in evangelicalism, this is a familiar story that we were told as children and young people. If you’re of a certain age, you might have grown up on the Left Behind series of books (both the adult books and the teen books) which played out a post-rapture society.
Obviously, this is alarming for two reasons: that our fighting men and women are being told they are now involved in a holy war which may or may not be part of their belief system and the fact that our secular government is declaring a holy war based on a religion that most Americans do not share. It is clear that this is a war for Israel (and a likely distraction from the Epstein files and recent drops about a victim interview regarding Trump) but it being declared a holy war is exactly the thing that many of the pastors and others I grew up with during the early years of this century have been hoping to happen. And now that day is here.
When all of this is over, however it ends, possibly with a great loss of life and destruction of US military assets or even an attack on domestic soil, our entire government and indeed our Constitution is going to need a major overhaul. Over the past decade, we have watched every institution fall apart (often with the hearty endorsement and happiness of people) and we have watched every Constitutional process fail to check a president. And we have watched leaders of both parties go along with this insanity due to the lobbying efforts of select organizations like AIPAC. Americans are waking up to this fact, especially following the Epstein files. The phrase, “The Epstein Class” is now in the lexicon to describe elites ranging from Trump to Chuck Schumer, among others.
The jig is up, and our society will need to completely reform after this. We cannot continue on as we have, the center will not hold. I fear another humiliating defeat for the US, whether or not Trump declares victory and gives up or what but the reality is that Jeffrey Epstein was in the intelligence business (probably Moussad or closely affiliated) and was doing business with Tel Aviv, Moscow, and possibly the CIA at any given time. He infiltrated networks of powerful people, compromised them, and found people aligned with long-term strategic goals that benefitted the people he was working for. We know that now. The question before everyone is basic: how do we stop this from ever happening again?
Perhaps this is our “Hitler invades Poland” moment. We all know how that ended. We’re even building facilities that people are describing as concentration camps, with President Trump announcing that they will seize warehouses to hold people. Are we the baddies? Yes, yes we are. Oh, and Kristi Noem is out at Homeland Security this week after another disastrous congressional hearing about an advertising contract. I said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that I wasn’t surprised because you can’t go around shooting white people in the face in this country, it’s un-American.
And that’s just this week. Are you feeling overwhelmed? I am. Are you feeling like everything is out of control, and yet, we are continuing to live our lives, go to work, pay bills and everything else? Yes. I always wondered it must have been like in the 1930s in Germany and how/why people weren’t outraged at everything happening. I have my answer, and I regret that I’ve lived long enough to find it. Evil is truly banal. I never thought I’d write those words, and at this age. We will get through this too, and I’ll be here, but as I said in my personal note, I feel the gravity of this moment more than anything else right now. But I’m here, and we’ll get through it together.
Articles of Interest
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The World is Hard, This is Not
If you’re new here, my name is Cameron Lee Cowan M.A. MFA, and I’m the Creative Director here at The Cameron Journal. You can learn more about me on the about page. I do research and commentary on politics, culture, and the world around us. Each week I send out the latest news narratives, the latest videos from The Cameron Journal and commentary about the week’s events. If you’d like to explore what The Cameron Journal can do for you beyond the news, just reply to this newsletter and we’ll connect you to the team. Remember, The World is Hard, This is Not
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