Trump is making three victory claims at once. Iran, he says, is “being very badly defeated.” The Strait of Hormuz, he says, is effectively American — “we own it,” the US has “total control,” the waterway is open and the mines cleared. And the naval blockade, he says, is total and biting, strangling Tehran’s economy. Set those three claims down next to a fourth fact — that his own Treasury is scrambling to invent a financial weapon “like have never been seen,” and that he is again threatening “a harsh new attack” if the strait doesn’t reopen “soon” — and they cancel each other out. You do not need an unprecedented new sanctions campaign to defeat a country you have already defeated. You do not need to threaten fresh bombing to open a strait you already own. The escalation is the confession. Each new demand for pressure is an admission that the last claim of victory wasn’t real.
Strip away the theater and the sequence is self-refuting. If Iran’s military were defeated, no unprecedented sanctions “punch” would be needed. If the strait were truly open and American-controlled, oil would not be near $92 with traffic at 17 percent and supertankers turning back. If the blockade were total, Iran’s oil revenue would be zero — instead it is selling to China in yuan, outside the blockade’s reach and outside the dollar’s reach, which is the very reason Bessent has to reach for a financial weapon Washington does not comfortably possess. And the overland bypass through Pakistan is running real cargo through Gwadar while Washington, needing Islamabad as its mediator, looks away — the same administration vowing to seal every door to Iran is courting the government that holds one of the widest doors open. Each claim of victory is contradicted by the next escalation, and the escalation keeps coming. When a government that says it has already won keeps demanding new and more extreme tools to win with, the demand is the evidence. The war is not over, the strait is not ours, and the sanctions are aimed at a chokehold Iran already slipped.
4 responses to “The Confession in the Escalation: If Iran Is Beaten and Hormuz Is Ours, Why the “Unprecedented” Sanctions?”
Trump’s post sounds like he is describing the fUSA.
Just sayin….
Iran is holding out until the November elections–where they know full well that there will be a political blow-out favoring the Communist Democratic Party… where it is highly likely that both houses will switch over. Wrap your skulls around this. It’s an intentional move by Iran, a move they know will spell the destruction of the USA at the hands of the CDP. The leftists once in power, will conduct non-stop investigations and hearings into Trump and everyone and everything associated with him and the MAGA movement. They may even succeed in impeaching and removing Trump from office. And who’s to blame for this coming fiasco? TRUMP–it will all land with him… as he allowed himself to be blackmailed or at the very least manipulated into this war with Iran. And Iran in this situation has gamed out the results far in advance BTW. They knew the outcome even before the bombs began to fall FYI. As for Israel–they don’t care who runs the US government as they control it all, already. Outcomes are irrelevant. So Iran is going to hold out, even if most of the country is bombed into rubble. And if they survive–they win. Even if Trump walks away from the war–they win hands down as the cost of the war for the USA far outweighs the cost of damage inflicted upon Iran. If it costs us 500 billion to inflict 25 billion dollars in damage–who wins?
2 to the chest and 1 to the head.
Deadly combo
Offense until the enemy stops moving