Travel:A week in Washington DC US. March 13-20/2026
- 6 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Friday morning (03/13) on which I flew from SFO to DC to visit my daughter Keren. mentioned also in my previous posts ( here ) the Spring weather exhibited abnormal hot temperatures in the 70 F, at our West Coast N. CA sphere.
However the mountains' range, over which Alaska Air flown across America, toward the East Coast, were all covered with white snow.
As if it isn't enough for nature to get unpredictably berserk, another week passed since the start of the man-made Roaring Lion/ Epic Furry dam war, in which the targeting by Iran of 7 Middle Eastern Oil reserves countries added to the already explosive inferno temperature.
Instead of landing 4.5 hours later in DC, the flight unexpectedly was diverted in mid air, and landed after 5:00pm in Raleigh Carolina.. about 450 Km away
from DC.
This flight story, strangely resembled the previous one, when just 2 months earlier the flight I was on to the Palm Springs Film Fest , got diverted and landed, in LA (here)
Even the FAA reasoning to halting aviation traffic was initially similar ,
Allegedly "strong winds" caused the closure of the 3 primary Washington-area airports. Later it was also reported that a strong chemical smell tied to a circuit board that was overheated, was the primary reason for the halt.
Who really knows. what the truth is and maybe it was related to Trump’s war…
The air traffic halt on Jan 4th coincided with the kidnapped extraction of Maduro from Venezuela, and the March 13 halt coincided with the US large bombing raid on Kharg island.
Khrag Island is a small coral island in Iran in the northern Persian Gulf that serves as the terminal for nearly all of Iran's oil exports and has a loading capacity of about 7 million barrels per day. About 90% of Iran's own oil exports
pass through Kharg Island and then the Hormuz strait.
The Island is one of relatively few Persian Gulf islands with natural freshwater resources, making it suitable for settlement by small populations.
Staking a territorial claim over the Hornuz international waterway that belongs to no one country governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty Iran has also signed. Iran own actions severed its own economic lifeline. However closing the Strait of Hormuz was always Iran's most visible retaliatory card. as it carries a fifth of the world's oil every day.
Back to my flight situation, extended Radar usages for increased military air flights , may have required civil traffic halt at airports, thus it might have been not just a coincidence. in both flights cases...
Later on March 18 a news piece which surfaced, revealed that: Multiple Drones Seen Over US Army Base Unidentified drown were detected. flying over Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., a sensitive U.S. Army base housing high-ranking officials during mid Iran War, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Either this event occurred on March 13th when the DC airports got closed and flights including mine were diverted, or it might had happened on March 17th when warning news about a huge foretasted Severe thunderstorms, gusty winds advisory and Coastal flood warning were drummed. concerning the the D.C. region , however non occur.ed.yet Gov. offices were shut down,
Obliterating military forces at Iran’s key oil export hub island, and annexing Venezuela oil, both are related to oil interests, which Trump seek advantage leverage over china.
It seems that Trump has been grappling with two of the biggest decisions of this war: whether to attack, and sizing the Kharg island with ground troops, and whether to unearth nuclear storage facilities buried under the rubble, where about 970 pounds of near-bomb-grade uranium is believed to remain.
In any case, my flight that was diverted to Raleigh, resumed its course after 3 hours wait at the Raleigh airport's gate, and after sitting for another hour at the tamarack a consent to land in DC. was obtained, so the plane took off.
My poor Keren had waited for hours due to my delayed landing before finally follow my insistence to leave the DC airport, and return home.
When the flight finally landed at 10:30 pm in DC it took another half an hour until an exit gate became available, (as the airport needed to accommodate many halted take off and landing flights) and another hour wait for the luggage to arrive..
it was after midnight when the Taxi dropped me at Kere's house.
Considering the devastating war of attrition going on in the Middle East, this nightmare flight experience was only a minute irritating inconvenience...
The war in Iran has wreaked havoc on world energy markets, prices skyrocketed at America’s gas pumps. American gasoline prices are up about 25%.
Non of the growing countries' pool dragged into this regional war co-lead by Israel and the US, could have predicted that the shooting up oil prices, would spirally escalate and, spill over to global economic markets in addition to the loss in lives and enormous collateral damages.
Armed with missiles and drones, Iran's regime has closed international waters and attacked neighbors' energy facilities. Tehran has attacked airports, ports, oil facilities and commercial hubs Iran continued to shoot missiles and suicide drones into all of its neighbors - shopping centers, airports, residential neighborhoods, and hotels.disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Furthermore 200 U.S. Troops Wounded in Iran War across 7 Countries U.S. troops have been wounded in Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, primarily in the first few days of the conflict. majority of U.S. injuries have been suffered in strikes by attack drones.
Sleep deprived Israelis found themselves only 9 month later after the previous altercation round (June 2025) fighting this second week, again on both fronts against Iran and Hesbolla in Lebanon, after being lied that "an historic military accomplishments were achieved and threats dismantled... " in the previous round
Yet, Polls show 80% of Israelis support the operation against Iran. Most Israelis see Iran as a pressing, existential threat.
Since March 2, Hizbullah has launched around 100 rockets a day, according to the IDF, as well as more than 100 drones over the entire period.
Relentless explosive pounding from Lebanon in the north and life shuttering ballistic missile sent from Iran have dished a totally opposite reality
Since the beginning of the war, (Feb 28) 18 civilians in Israel have been killed, and 3,604 people have been injured as a result of direct hits, interception debris, and secondary damage.
Strangely an Happiness Report published that Despite War, Israel Ranks 8th in Global Happiness Survey in the World for the second year in a row.
The U.S. was 23rd, the UK 29th, and France 35th.
With the war progressing to its third week, It became doubtful if Trump and Netanyahu still are on the same page.
It seems that Trump’s aims in joining the air war against Iran are beginning to rub against the long-term objectives of Netanyahu ..Trump wants to bend Iran. while Netanyahu seeks to break it. Israel seeks an end to the regime and to crush its regional influence.
On March 17 the dubious director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned over concerns about the justification for military strikes in Iran stating that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel"
Not only that the infamous accusations against Israel and the US Jewish lobby in making the influential decision to launch the current war initiative, against Iran, are conspiratorial and purely antisemitic, but more so, it is a derogatory slap in the face to the US president and Intelligence agencies, that the US may have not done its required own thorough due diligence leg work, to coincide with the US’ own security, political, and economic interests.
Furthermore, since Kent was responsible for national counter-terrorism intelligence, and allegedly had opposed military intervention, I was wondering what impactful economic warfare against the head of the terror state-snake, had he initiated and what pressures he imposed to dry out Iranian regime’s economic essential resources, as to degrade Iran’s capability to terrorize the region and stop its threats against global safe navigation, and trade, especially as 80% of the economic assets of the Iranian revolutionary Guard, are parked within the Emirates and in European countries???
There is no doubt in my mind based on the actions taken by the fanatic Iranian regime for the past 47 years, that the threats to the U.S. to Israel, to Iran's immediate niebouring countries and to the Iranian people are imminent threat
Had Iran been left to its own devices Tehran would surely have continued to make progress towards viable nuclear weapons And it would have continued to sponsor terrorism around the world, striking at Western interests.
Much of the criticism of the U.S.-Israeli campaign focuses on its costs while treating the status quo ante, as if it were cost-free. It was not. Tehran was less than two weeks away from enriching enough uranium for one nuclear bomb, according to U.S. intelligence assessments. The neutralization of Iran as an active, ongoing threat to the U.S. and its interests is obvious
Full account of what was accomplished by the US/Israel alliance. outlines that
U.S. forces have hit more than 7,000 targets in Iran since the beginning of the operation, Central Command said that Israel has launched about 8,000 more,
Although there is much criticism against the lingering of the war and its shifting goals, a poll conducted March 3-5 by the Vandenberg Coalition among 1,232 Trump voters found 84% approval of Trump's "decision to authorize military action against Iran."
U.S. strategy was one of systematic, phased degradation. so Iran's power is collapsing in real time
Assistant Professor of International Politics and Security at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar. Muhanad Seloom (Al Jazeera-Qatar) stated that
.Iran's principal instruments of power - its ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air defenses, its navy, its key leaders and its proxy command architecture portrays a systematic, phased degradation.
The advanced technology deployed by Israel and the penetration of Iranian society by its agents are creating the greatest threat yet to the regime.
Israeli intelligence hunting Down learned that Iran had a fallback plan for its internal security forces in the event their facilities were destroyed - mustering at local sports complexes. Israel watched the sites fill up and then hit them, killing hundreds of members of the security services and military, the vast majority at Azadi Stadium, a large venue for soccer games.
Iran now faces a strategic dilemma. If it fires its remaining missiles, it exposes launchers that are promptly destroyed. At the closing of the third week of war Iran has fired missiles at the joint U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, claiming the strike shows it is capable of longer-distance attacks than previously known.
Neyanyahoo Bowing to The Iranians
This is a force managing decline, not projecting strength.
The regime's mass martyrdom, is the preferred struggle result and is thought to only hasten the coming of the Imam Mahdi
China, Tehran's largest remaining economic partner, cannot receive Iranian crude while the strait is shut. .Every day the blockade continues, Iran severs its own economic lifeline and alienates the one major power that has consistently shielded it.
The Iranian people are desperate for the regime to be overthrown and cheer Israeli and American strikes as they rain down around them.
The regional environment that sustained Iran's proxy architecture, including the grudging tolerance by Gulf states fearful of Iranian retaliation, is being replaced by active hostility. Qatar and Bahrain are arresting IRGC operatives.
The Iranian threat, if left unchecked, would have produced a nuclear-armed Iran capable of closing the Strait of Hormuz at will, surrounded by proxy forces that could hold the entire region hostage indefinitely.
And yet the Gulf countries and the Europeans , despite the enticing call from Trump have been so far reluctant to join in militarily, in this war effort against Iran,, though clearly they have been also attacked and their security and economic interests are being further jeopardized by this fanatic regime, which is ready to sacrifice, in this war Ches the lives of their own people,and their country's assets for the sake of their "national honor "and fanatic ideological revolution, as much and as long as it takes.
So in the background of this worrying war my visit to DC was not about touring museums, parks or frequenting the theater.
Staying at an affluent bedroom suburb community, of Montgomery County one of most populous in US Maryland's State , located about 40 minutes drive away from DC , was an intriguing experience of its own.
Red brick chain-attached houses set in a meticulously planned neighborhoods in between wooded areas and endless shopping facilities, are the domineering architectural landscape.
A delightful early spring bloom added some refreshed coloring to the monotonous leafless grey trees.
My days mainly spent in the company of my beloved Keren and baby Salo, who just moved into their rental property, closed by to the in- laws
Putting the house in order, shopping for house-hold necessities, giving cooking lessons to my daughter, and entertaining baby Salo were the main daily's activities.
Also visits to the local libraries and JCC where special musical, story telling and other enrichment programs are offered to
infants , were fun activities for Salo taht we shared
A short but special tour during this one week visit, at the impressive headquarters building of the US Department of State , was an exception to the mandaine activities, as was dinner at the in-laws. and one afternoon strolling through the enchanting George Town historic DC neighborhood (1751) along the Potomac River.
The week passed too fast
The sky was rain-dripping as was my heart weeping sad tears on the early evening, when Keren drove me to the airport for my flight back. to SFO
Departed DC leaving Keren and Baby Salo behind, wasn't easy for us both
To my relief there were no surprises with this flight back which departed and arrived on time.
The END