Phil Klay

@polgreen.bsky.social

Opinion | Trump’s Fantasy Is Crashing Down

“This is the world Trump tries to disavow — complex and interconnected, resiliently interwoven and yet vulnerable to disruption…More than anything, it shows up — in its grounded flights, shuttered refineries and intercepted missiles — the fallacy of Fortress America”

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/o...

Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/w...

The restrictions Miller and Hegseth railed against were designed to prevent us from doing things like slaughtering children en masse.

Trump’s Unauthorized War The Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the power to mobilize the military—and for good reason.

“Democracy allows people the freedom to make stupid decisions, so long as they make them collectively. But a system that allows a country to be dragged into war at the whims of a single person is not much of a democracy at all.”
@qjurecic.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Trump’s Unauthorized War The Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the power to mobilize the military—and for good reason.

Why this war is illegal, and how the Constitution's checks on war powers broke down

Juan Jose Valdez, Last Marine Out of Saigon, Dies at 88

“A lot of good people got killed, and for what?” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1990. “And when we left, we left with our tail between our legs.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/u...

Lastly, they are for the soul of your nation and your cause. Limits on war preserve humanity. Mercy transcends violence. After the fighting, there has to be something more. Rules of engagement and the laws of armed conflict protect you; abandoning them is dire.

I know that the people who need to read this aren’t here, but here goes:

Rules of engagement aren’t for the enemy. They’re for you. They’re for your soldiers when they’re captured or wounded. They’re for your civilians when they’re in range of the enemy. They’re for your allies, to reassure.

Last night, I spoke to former Army Pfc. Jeremy Watson who said this about Capt. Cody Khork: “[he] enjoyed being in the service…and was a great coach,” who taught him “Compassion, friendship, loyalty…[and] to always try to stay positive when you can.”

I think we learned to somehow do it even more irresponsibly

Live Updates: Senate Republicans Block War Powers Limits as Mideast Crisis Widens

“Republican lawmakers blocked a measure Wednesday that would have limited President Trump’s power to continue waging war against Iran without congressional authorization, even as the conflict expanded into a wider international crisis”

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

January 31st, 2012. We called in A-10s. Killed four Taliban. I remember the bodies. Teenagers. Twisted wrecked flesh

Making killing a video game isn’t just obscene. It’s a lie. It papers over what violence is and what it does to the human body, and to our soul. Truth is always the first casualty.

Nice. I’m rereading it and my God, what a book.

“By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.”

—Moby Dick

Hegseth has offered more clarity on his war on the Boy Scouts than on the current war with Iran.

Hegseth has offered more clarity on his war on the Boy Scouts than on the current war with Iran.

Hegseth has offered more clarity on his war on the Boy Scouts than on the current war with Iran.

Ooooooh…I need to check that out

The Epic Miscalculations of Trump and Khamenei Hubris has distorted their strategic decisions.

“Hard power alone can depose a regime, but it is notoriously incapable of cultivating a better successor.”

www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Ironic that one of the legacies of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a presidency that can initiate wars on whim, without even the pretense of building a case to the American people first.

The American-Israeli Strikes on Iran are (Again) Manifestly Illegal After weeks of threats, the United States, joined by Israel, has launched military strikes against Iran. It remains to be seen whether these strikes will be fairly limited, or are the opening of an ex...

"Whatever happens, though, one thing is clear – that this use of force by the US and Israel is manifestly illegal. It is as plain a violation of the prohibition on the use of force in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter as one could possibly have."

@ejiltalk.bsky.social

www.ejiltalk.org/the-american...

Thanks!

Thank you, Kori!

What a great opportunity to learn from two of our best veteran writers! Best writers full stop, also.

Austin Literary Event: National Book Award Winner Phil Klay to Lead Writers Colloquium MFA Program brings award-winning authors Phil Klay and Matt Gallagher to Austin for public writing workshop and literary event.

Texas people! The great Matt Gallagher and I are headed your way next weekend to run a free day of writing workshops!

Come join us on Saturday, March 7, courtesy of the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing.

www.fairfield.edu/news/press-r...

Tonight in BK! Come to a chat where I’ll ask Chris Beha about God, atheism, Montaigne, and mysticism.

As invasion enters fifth year, the children of Ukraine learn to fight back More than 385,000 Ukrainian teenagers are enrolled in a defense course, expecting war, or threats, to go on for years. In Russia, children are learning the same skills.

“If Russian troops ever return to Bucha, Katya doesn’t want to be scared. She intends to be ready.
The teacher asks for volunteers to try loading a rifle. Katya’s hand shoots up.”

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

Songbird – Wesleyan University Press Resonant poems give form to the paradoxes of embodiment and interiorityUtilizing the short lyric poem in long sequence, Songbird addresses matters both urgen...

Congrats to my wonderful colleague Carol Ann Davis whose extraordinary collection SONGBIRD is out today from Wesleyan University Press!

www.weslpress.org/978081950222...