{"id":8679,"date":"2026-02-24T05:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/?p=8679"},"modified":"2026-02-27T05:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:53:10","slug":"8679","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/2026\/02\/24\/8679\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/irans-shadowy-chemical-weapons-program-draws-scrutiny-reports-allege-use-against-protesters\">\u201cIran\u2019s shadowy chemical weapons program draws scrutiny as reports allege use against protesters,\u201d<\/a> Fox, 2-24-26.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2026\/02\/24\/iran-us-strikes-expert-forum-roundup-00794832\">\u201c7 experts on the risk of a wider war with Iran,\u201d<\/a> Politico, 2-24-26.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/blog\/silk-road-rivalries\/its-time-to-confront-afghanistan-and-iran-about-al-qaeda\">\u201cIt\u2019s Time to Confront Afghanistan and Iran About Al-Qaeda,\u201d<\/a> National Interest, 2-24-26.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe al-Qaeda terror network operates with impunity out of Iran and Afghanistan. America must lean on both countries\u2019 regimes to bring it to heel. Iran\u2019s nuclear program is at the heart of its ongoing standoff with the United States, but Washington also needs to confront Iran on another key issue: its persistent support for al-Qaeda and its ongoing relationship with the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foreignaffairs.com\/middle-east\/why-iran-will-escalate?utm_medium=newsletters&amp;utm_source=twofa&amp;utm_campaign=Why%20Iran%20Will%20Escalate&amp;utm_content=20260227&amp;utm_term=N\">\u201cWhy Iran Will Escalate,\u201d<\/a> Foreign Affairs, 2-24-26.\u00a0\u00a0This article forgets the argument that the U.S. warned not to punish the protesters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIran\u2019s shadowy chemical weapons program draws scrutiny as reports allege use against protesters,\u201d Fox, 2-24-26. \u201c7 experts on the risk of a wider war with Iran,\u201d Politico, 2-24-26. \u201cIt\u2019s Time to Confront Afghanistan and Iran About Al-Qaeda,\u201d National Interest, 2-24-26.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe al-Qaeda terror network operates with impunity out of Iran and Afghanistan. America must lean on &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/2026\/02\/24\/8679\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2819,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2532],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-update"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8688,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8679\/revisions\/8688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coatesn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}