February 2026

RON UNZ—Some of Carlson’s recent shows had been quite critical of Mike Huckabee, a conservative Republican political figure and Christian Zionist pastor, whom Trump had appointed as our ambassador to Israel.

Carlson had known and been friendly with Huckabee for decades, and after the two of them clashed on Twitter, he had agreed to travel to Israel and interview Huckabee on political issues and also on his religious doctrines, with that long video airing a couple of days ago.

Video Link

Some of the circumstances of Carlson’s short visit to Israel for the Huckabee interview were so unusual that he found it necessary to describe them at length in a prologue to the interview itself.

Over the last couple of years, Carlson’s outspokenness had led to a ferocious campaign of vilification by prominent pro-Israel American Jews, and at the beginning of January Carlson was named “Antisemite of the Year” by the organization StopAntisemitism. Some of those pro-Israel activists had gone so far as to denounce him as “a Nazi” and members of the Israeli government had said the same thing.

So as Carlson attempted to make arrangements for his trip, he became concerned by the very peculiar behavior of the Israeli officials whom he had contacted. Israeli airspace is heavily militarized, but they seemed strangely uninterested in the flight plan of the private plane that he had been forced to charter, and he was also informed that his security arrangements on the ground would be handled by a government official who had previously denounced him as “a Nazi.” Over the last couple of years, the Israeli government had killed around 200 journalists, some of them extremely prominent ones and American citizens, so even rather trusting individuals might become alarmed at this situation. According to Carlson, he shared his text exchanges with highly experienced foreign correspondents and he was told that they had never heard of a government behaving in such a strange and suspicious manner.

SR—On the night of February 20-21, 2026, Ukraine launched an intermediate-range missile at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, a strategic defense industrial facility located in the Republic of Udmurtia, some 1,300 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border. The missile, equipped with a 1,000-kilogram warhead, struck a building housing Workshop 19, which houses a critical electroplating and stamping workshop. It is here that Russian technicians carry out the metal stamping and forming processes related to the manufacture of missile body elements, as well as the galvanic processing of parts, including the application of protective and functional coatings and surface preparation for further assembly. Workshop 19 playes a critical role in the manufacture of some of Russia’s most strategically vital ballistic missiles. The Flamingo’s warhead blasted a 30-by-24-meter hole in the roof of the structure, setting its interior on fire. At least 11 workers were wounded in the attack.

GARLAND NIXON—Garland Nixon presents a detailed analysis of the potential for a military conflict between the United States and Iran, emphasizing the possibility that the U.S. could suffer a significant defeat. He references historical war games, such as the 2002 Millennium Challenge, where simulated U.S. forces were overwhelmed by unconventional, low-tech tactics, highlighting vulnerabilities in U.S. military doctrine against asymmetric warfare. Nixon argues that U.S. military planning suffers from systemic issues, including a reliance on proxy wars, disregard for soldier casualties, and a lack of experience fighting peer or near-peer adversaries like Iran, especially when supported by Russia and China. Technological advancements, particularly in missile and drone warfare, have transformed the battlefield, rendering traditional U.S. advantages such as overseas bases and air superiority less effective or even liabilities.