Today (July 9, 2026), NPR ran an interview with Ambassador Dennis Ross, Special Envoy to the Middle East, on the “state of the ceasefire.” The lede (yes, that’s how you spell it) for the online version of the NPR story was “At what point might the U.S. and Mideast allies attacked by Iran determine it’s time to restart the war? NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with Ambassador Dennis Ross, a former special envoy for the Mideast.”
I have a different question: At what point do we call BS on the notion that there still is a ceasefire at all? I don’t want to get overly literal here, but it would seem that one of the characteristics of a “ceasefire” is, well, the cessation of firing.
Trump and the GOP clearly have an interest in the Iran adventure remaining a low-scale “conflict.” For one thing, we may be running low on munitions. For another, Trump and his GOP lackeys would heartily like to avoid providing Congress the grounds to consider a War Powers Resolution. Lastly, some of Trump’s base really doesn’t want the US involved in endless wars, even if Trump is the one leading us into them. (Note that the possibility of MAGA anger at Trump over the war does not mean that MAGA is the least bit upset with Trump and his family over Trump and his family’s brazen grifting and corruption. Although MAGA railed on and on about how the “elites” prosper while regular people fall further and further behind, they seem fine with Trump and his family sucking up as much profit off the presidency as possible, I guess on the theory that Trump may be a crook, but he’s their crook.)
Anyway, back to the “cease fire.” It’s understandable why Trump and the GOP may want to continue the fiction that hostilities have ceased, but I am puzzled about why the media has bought into it. And of course they have. Look at the NPR headline that I started this post with. And NPR isn’t the only outlet asking about the current state of the “ceasefire.” Just a random Google search instantly netted me the following headline from USA Today: “Khamenei buried as US-Iran attacks strain fragile ceasefire.”
Please. The ceasefire isn’t fragile. It’s fake–as fake as the peace deal that Trump crowed about. If the two sides are firing at each other, we have neither a ceasefire nor peace. Let’s just be honest about that, even if Trump and his minions can’t be.