Suicide Out of a Fear of Death
By 
President Trump said that the U.S. Navy would begin blockading “any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz,” after peace talks with Iran in Islamabad collapsed this weekend. “I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” Trump said Sunday in a post on social media. “Other countries” would be involved in the blockade with the U.S., he said, without providing more details.
In the post on his Truth Social network, Trump said that Iran was carrying out extortion by blocking the strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil usually travels, with mines. “They want money and, more importantly, they want Nuclear. “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!,” he said. The Navy has begun hunting mines laid in the strait in recent days. Trump had previously told aides he was willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the strait remains largely closed.
But in the long post, Trump said that Iran had promised and failed to open the strait, which had “caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and Countries throughout the World.”
I am beginning to worry that the President is not the dealmaker we’ve been led to believe…
President Trump’s newly announced blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is a high-stakes economic gamble—and one where Iran holds a strong hand.
While Washington flexes its naval muscle to starve Tehran of revenue, a failure to reopen the strait will likely hit the global economy harder, at least initially. For markets, this creates a perfect storm: surging crude prices, reignited inflation and tumbling equities. This continued supply shock threatens to exacerbate global shortages of everything from liquefied natural gas and jet fuel to helium.
Meanwhile, Tehran appears better positioned economically, at least in the short term. Having successfully shipped crude throughout the conflict, Iran is cushioned by recent windfall profits. Tehran also retains potent asymmetric leverage. If cornered, it could cripple the Gulf’s fallback options by striking Saudi and United Arab Emirates bypass pipelines, while its regional proxies could close the critical Bab al-Mandeb shipping route.
And if you want a sense on where we are regarding war objectives, it looks as if Iran’s ballistic missile inventory isn’t even on the table anymore.
Mr. Vance did not say what those red lines were. In the days leading up to the talks, both sides had issued public statements suggesting they remained far apart on several critical issues. They did not even agree on whether the two-week truce they reached on Tuesday applied to fighting in Lebanon, a dispute that nearly derailed the meeting.
By early Sunday, three main sticking points remained, according to two Iranian officials familiar with the talks: the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz; the fate of nearly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium; and Iran’s demand that about $27 billion in frozen revenues held abroad be released.
The United States had demanded that Iran immediately reopen the strait to all maritime traffic. But Iran refused to relinquish leverage over the critical choke point for oil tankers, saying it would do so only after a final peace deal, according to the two Iranian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations.
I’ve asked it before… but how can you be actively, obviously worse at all of this than the Cheney-Rummy-Bush crew?