Operation Epic… um, Fail? – April 1, 2026

Some context, and a bit of fun before turning serious.

This past Sunday, March 29th, a whole lot of March Madness brackets were rendered trashcan worthy when a young freshman Braylon Mullins of UConn, with all of 0.4 seconds left on the clock, nailed a 35-foot buzzer-beating three-point shot, all net, that became the final nail in Duke’s 2026 campaign.

Mullins’ mother had a gold level Social Media creating reaction, trending across all prevailing platforms, saying to herself, while entirely stunned yet caught on video, clearly saying “holy fucking shit!” One of the best late game three-point shots in all of March Madness history.

The most sweet of cruel finishes thus far, and with it Duke’s Elite Eight performance will end up in the books as a massive failure of historic collapse. Duke was top seed, and on the majority of all brackets entered, from ESPN to CBSSports, as being in the final four. But now we have witnessed a 19-point lead become a complete meltdown to a historic UConn win. The second consecutive late in the tournament collapse under coach Duke Jon Scheyer, and now the program has serious concerns over late-game management and team composure in total contrast to regular-season dominance.

Example one of recent epic failures.

Just two days before on Friday, March 27th, a golf legend and household name ended up arrested for DUI in Jupiter Island, Florida… again.

Tiger Woods was driving his Land Rover and somehow ran into, or clipped, a commercial pressure washing truck and trailer. Flipping the vehicle over, not the first time for Tiger, only to end up on its side. Tiger found on the side of road and reported by police as “clearly impaired.” Two white pills found on his persons, later determined to be hydrocodone. Blew 0.00 on scene, refused to submit to blood or urine test, arrested on scene, held for hours, ultimately charged.

Tiger announced yesterday, March 31st, that he is stepping away from competitive golf to seek treatment for his health and well-being. You may consider that Tiger needed a few DUI arrests, several wrecked cars, one accident nearly claiming his life, to finally look for help. We can both wish him all the best in recovery and still question why it took so long for him to realize it.

Similar to UConn’s epic conclusion to their game over Duke, the social media memes are not only extensive regarding Tiger Wood and and impaired driving, but most are practically writing themselves.

Example two of a recent epic failure.

Is there a theme emerging?

Of course there is.

As of today, the US along side Israel is 33 days into this military campaign into Iran impacting so many. Operation Epic Fury is starting to look more and more like something else. Hold the above themes in mind.

As a key status point, the war is now entering a 5th week. Early predictions suggested this would be much shorter, giving us eerily reminiscent reminders of both what Trump promised in time it would take to end Russia going into Ukraine as well as his own suggestion this would conclude in “two to three weeks.” Each day that seems to get pushed out, and each time there is a new threat from Trump that also seems to get plenty of timeframe shifting. TACO?

Between the closure, or partial closure depending on who you ask, of the Strait of Hormuz (we have had plenty of conversations on this) and several nations in and around the region seeing retaliatory strikes from Iran, there seems to be no real end game and no real timeframe to get to whatever goals exist from the Trump Administration. A few mission statement level things from Hegseth during a briefing, and a few “negotiations” underway reported by Trump that Iran denies.

Mainstream is circulating plenty of stories based on “insiders speaking on the condition of anonymity” saying Trump is considering concluding the war, as is, leaving the Strait in current condition. Largely closed. Literally, the US making a mess in the region then walking away under Trump’s direct “not our problem” statement. One could look at this as an example of temper tantrum politics where a President could not convince other nations to assist so… take his ball and go home.

Even if Marco Rubio has some other 15-point plan, everyone else is unsure about, the theme carries on with statements about “US leading the military effort” but that the economic consequences of the Strait being closed, or mostly closed, are primarily a European and Asian problem. While sort of true, looks like the Trump Administration is trying to ignore that oil is a globally traded commodity and handled by a cartel of oil producing nations. Some of whom, are being attacked and directly impacted by Trump’s campaign into Iran in the first place.

Operation Epic Fury becoming Operation Epic Failure is becoming realized.

Questions… lots of Questions

Just today, Trump has escalated his temper tantrum politics against NATO suggesting he is “strongly considering” pulling the US out of the alliance. Predicated on prior statements, like to The Telegraph where he called NATO a “paper tiger” but where Trump also admitted his “reconsideration” is due to allies, that he has not treated all that well since taking office again, refused to support his incursion into Iran.

Direct recent Trump quotes:

• “I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way” when commenting on NATO’s strength.
• “We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine… They weren’t there for us” when making the case for the US supporting Trump but NATO not supporting Trump in return.
• “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work” was Trump’s swipe on our arguably closest ally UK.

A question to ask yourself is why all the frustration from the Trump Administration, and even a passive review of TruthSocial and Trump’s public comments this seems to come down to France, Spain, Italy, and perhaps Germany as well refusing to participate in bombing Iran then opening up the Strait of Hormuz.

The very naval forces Trump claims the UK does not have, he is upset that he does not have command over. Let that sink in.

But, we also have a legal question here to explore. Perhaps also yet more stress on the role of Congress currently in the hands of Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune. True loyalists to the Trump Administration and very rarely in his way politically speaking. We had that conversation recently too.

The question is about a collision of Congressional actions.

The US alliance with NATO was originally authorized by the North Atlantic Treaty itself at its organization point, and authorized by the US Senate on July 21, 1949. While the NATO agreement on its own has several guardrails another exists with section 1250A of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) from 2024. That section states the US cannot withdraw from NATO without a two-thirds Senate vote. The treaty itself, NAT under Article 11, says the treaty must be carried out according to each member nation’s Constitutional processes, and in the case of the US the President cannot bypass Congress.

The rub, how often does Johnson or Thune say “no” to Trump? Not just the function of adhering to law with a vote on something, but in some cases Congress just acting like they cannot be bothered to even address the measure at all.

Tonight, President Trump is expected to address the nation. We can assume Iran will be a subject, we can also assume his dispute with alliances and perhaps NATO will get some commentary. Not unrealistic to expect Trump’s usual tone meaning saying plenty of terrible things about various European nations.

Food for Thought

The theme realized here, Operation Epic Failure, is multiple-level.

Much like a buzzer-beating three-point shot to knockoff a number-one seed team in March Madness, another madness is soon to be realized in the most powerful military on the planet leaving their own mess to other nations to clean up.

Much like a troubled professional golf legend, the US has damaged so much of our own international reputation that most of our closest allies you could argue well might no longer be our allies. Being told they are on their own, literally, NATO is “irrelevant” and that they are responsible for reestablishing international oil trade entirely because the US, and to a degree Israel, cannot be bothered.

One possible conclusion to seriously consider… US foreign policy has fallen from the days of Reagan and “shining city on a hill” for international leadership in the pursuit of freedom is now reduced to “don’t wanna, not gonna” style leadership.

As evidence to consider, Trump’s multiple-direction and consistently changing “TACO” tariffs based trade war has not really helped the US economically. You going to tell yourself the US is now “respected?” (One of many goals Trump claimed.) And in the wake are these very relationships with key allies that are now telling Trump “no” to his requests (arguably demands.)

More evidence, this latest campaign into Iran. We now have flag draped boxes coming home to grieving families for a conflict for uncertain reasons and to unknown conclusions. For the US or anyone else. Likely will mean other nations having to clean it all up. Not about “regime change,” but kinda was, and ultimately we are spending a $billion per day with some of our regional allies taking all the punishment. Their trade routes, their assets. We are all paying more at the pump for this mess, game set and match on the reality oil is internationally traded.

By the way, any word on their nuclear ambitions? Notice how that conversation has drifted away by the Trump Administration down to mainstream media on the original subject of Iran’s ambitions? Might be a reason for that, nuclear capability might have not been the concern in the first place, might have been about Israel the entire time.

Crusader Mentality?

As we move forward in the coming days and weeks consider not just how the US decides to exit this conflict with Iran, assuming we do, but under what conditions for so many other nations to deal with.

More serious questions:

• What is the status of the Strait at that point?
• What is the oil export status of nations dealing with Iran’s retaliation?
• Who else ends up involved as Trump seems to just want to walk away? China or India?
• Does Trump convince his Congressional leadership to yet again sit on the sidelines and do we lose NATO because of?
• Do European nations continue to defy Trump in a manner that strikes right to his fragile ego? As in, even more international consequences.

Regardless, approval ratings for Trump and Congress being in freefall is very explainable. On the economy, or international relations, or even this issue of Iran overall we are seeing more and more ask more and more questions. Even FoxNews of all networks is starting to straddle a fence concerning Iran. Show of hands, who thought that was going to happen?

Anyway, a solid argument for Operation Epic Failure being a thing has been made… disagree? If you do, at least 13 military personnel have been killed so far, their families may disagree with you.