The Wire - March 19, 2026

This is the wire for 2300 Zulu, March 19, 2026.

Presidents as routine, information cutoff is 2200, bottom line up front.

War in Middle East continues to escalate daily as Iranian targeting increases in scope

and effectiveness.

GCC states voice growing concerns regarding attacks on oil and gas infrastructure.

Pentagon requests $200 billion budget increase to continue war.

Beginning with international events, in the Middle East, Iranian targeting efforts have

continued to become more effective over the past few days.

Drowned in missile attacks have been increasing since the war began, with strikes being reported

at the most US military installations around the region daily.

Oil infrastructure has also been targeted in GCC states that have been allowing American

forces to launch high-mars missiles at Iran.

Within mainland Iran, satellite imagery from yesterday confirmed that Israeli or American

forces struck a target at the Iranian-Busher nuclear power plant.

Imagerie provided by Airbus indicates at least one impact crater roughly 350 meters from

the BUSher-1 reactor.

Shortly after the attack, a Kuwaiti state media broadcast an announcement from the Kuwaiti

National Guard, stating that radiation levels after the strike were reported to be normal.

The Qataris made similar announcements of normal radiation readings this afternoon.

With an Israel-Iranian targeting remains constant as well, with drone and missile attacks

being reported regularly throughout the nation.

Yesterday, Ben Gurion Airport was hit with several aircraft burning on the tarmac.

The port of Haifa has been hit continually since the war began, and over the past few

days, more footage has made a two-social media depicting the damage, as another substantial

missile strike took place last night.

Analysts comment.

Continuing longstanding national defense policy, it is nearly impossible to determine

where strikes are happening within Israel, as this information is tightly controlled by

the Israeli government.

Live streaming cameras and traffic cams have been destroyed by the military throughout

most of the country, so the intelligence gap of how bad things are until a wave is

quite substantial at this point.

In Saudi Arabia, last night, an Iranian strike was reported that these Samara oil refinery

complex in Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast.

This strike resulted in unknown damage, but the fires started by the strike were detected

via satellite.

On the home front, in Delaware, yesterday evening, President Trump attended the dignified

transfer of the airman killed in the crash of the KC-135 in Western Iraq.

No media was allowed to cover the event with the White House photographer only providing

a few images of the transfer.

Analysts comment.

This is not the first time the media have been blocked from such an event.

Public Cheney instituted that this is a blanket policy in 1991, and this became more heavily

enforced starting in approximately 2003 to 2009 during the height of the GWAT.

It is unclear as to if the White House will be reinstituting this policy or if this was

a one-time ban.

In Washington, D.C., this morning, the Pentagon requested the approval of a $200 billion

defense package to supplement the war department's budget for the continuation of the war

in the Middle East.

Analysts comment.

For perspective on how much money this is, as of right now, the United States taxpayer

has sent a grand total of $175 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the start of

that war in 2022.

As a result, the Pentagon casually requesting a check from the taxpayer greater than that

which has been spent to date in Ukraine is going to be a hard pill to swallow.

Analysts comments for this wire.

The strike on the oil refinery in Saudi Arabia is not like the others, and this specific

refinery was probably targeted for two reasons.

For one, this is the facility that is the end of the line for the Saudi East-West pipeline

that is helping to alleviate some of the constraint on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranians have proven that they have the ability to not just impact the primary means

of oil transport in the Persian Gulf, but also the secondary backup measures that involve

the pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.

The second reason that this specific attack was carried out is due to an American base

being quietly set up just a few miles to the North last year.

While the effectiveness of this strike will be debated, something is still on fire at this

facility as of this morning, which is not the gas flaring that is normally witnessed

at refineries.

Additionally, with the exception of these strikes on Israel, this is the longest range

attack conducted so far during this conflict.

This is yet another indicator that the Iranians are not only able to survive, but carry out

increasingly more complicated and difficult targeting efforts.

Similarly, Qatar officials have voiced outrage at the continuation of the war stating that

roughly 17% of their entire natural gas production capability has been completely destroyed,

and that even if the war stops right now, it will take a minimum of three to five years

to return to baseline capacity.

Saad al-Qaabi, the CEO of Qatar Energy, stated that $20 billion worth of damage has been

done to their array of units, which originally cost about $26 billion to build in the first

place.

This morning, statements by the United States have not exactly alleviated concerns as President

Trump responded to the recent targeting efforts at the South Power's natural gas facility.

In his post on social media, he claimed that Israel acted unilaterally out of anger

in striking this facility, and that if Iran attempts to respond to this attack, the

United States will blow up the entire South Power's gas field.

This concludes the war for 2300 Zulu, March 19, 2026.