An Outcast at the Summit

Steyn Online ^ | 4 Sep 2026 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

In defiance of medical advice to eschew the Internet, I am briefly out of my coma and attempting to catch up on world affairs. I see Operation Epic Fury has evolved into Operation Economic Outcast, as the US sanctions first imposed on Iran in, oh, November 1979 are apparently starting to bite.

.. how's Operation Economic Outcast going? The picture at right is from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit this week in Bishkek. I doubt many readers have heard of Bishkek, possibly because until 1926 it was known as Pishpek. But I gather it's the capital of some no-name stan in the murky territory marked on State Department maps as the "Rest of the World": here be dragons. I doubt many more readers have heard of the "Shanghai Cooperation Organisation", but its member nations represent over forty per cent of the world's population spread over two-thirds of Eurasia. And lookee here: that's the President of Iran standing on stage with Chairman Xi, Tsar Putin and Sultan Erdogan among those on his left, and on his immediate right Prime Minister Modi of India. Notwithstanding Secretary Bessent's sanctions-rattling, none of the A-listers suggested moving the global pariah to the back row. If the Iranian bloke were to get any more outcast, he'd be unanimously acclaimed UN Secretary-General.

Aside from the souvenir snap, there was also a communiqué, which almost en passant reprised "the SCO's previously stated position condemning military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran... Such actions violate the principles and norms of international law and the UN Charter and create serious risks to international peace, security and stability." That's boilerplate compared to the blunter message conveyed by the group shot, but the Indian press found it a notable development given Delhi's close relations with America and Israel.

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[Rummyfan]

[Steely Tom]

...possibly because until 1926 it was known as Pishpek.

One of my college professors had a Yiddish-speaking uncle back in the old country (Russia) who invented an incontinence cure, which (he said) actually achieved some success. He named it "pish-nicht."

[TheConservator]

I really like Mark Steyn, but absolutely do not agree with his derisory tone directed at the administration’s strategy toward Iran. By all accounts, the current sanctions are biting. Iran—IRAN—is apparently now less than two months away from running out of its stockpiles of gasoline, which one would expect to cause it economy to collapse.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Since when is doing the right thing popular?

Try being an independent in highschool. This looks like highschool.

When hard men do hard things, the tongues wag and muffled giggles echo.

An old friend told me he was in a Catholic church pew in the 70’s and up ahead was a family snickering, half-contained.

They were laughing at the person or family, I forget, in front of them for protesting and counseling outside the local abortion kill mill.

He became, because of this, a wonderful effective sidewalk counselor after seeing their faith in action, the laughed-at person or family.

Who will swarm him, them, in heaven when Jesus meets him? He will not be alone, he will not be unknown.