As the fighting with Iran continues to wreak havoc across the Middle East, it has become a stalemate similar to that of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite the exchanging of fire back and forth and the economic embargo against Iran, Senator Ted Cruz is adamant that this engagement is a “military conflict” and a “boycott” against Iran and not a war (using military ships and aircraft to force another country to meet its demands is terrorism and not a boycott), largely to justify the violation of Article I Section 8 of the Constitution (Congress must declare war). Regardless of the lack of progress or change in status of the Strait of Hormuz, there are a few developments that are noteworthy.
As the peace talks scheduled in Oman seem to be postponed (as all of the other negotiations have either faded or failed), occasional skirmishes continue in the region. After an Iranian commercial ship and five oil tankers were hit by American missiles (four in the Gulf of Oman and one near Kharg Island, which is Iran’s main oil hub), Iran retaliated with strikes against American forces stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Prior to that, Iran had allegedly targeted United States Navy vessels, and additional Iranian oil tankers were destroyed (including near the coast of the United Arab Emirates and Iraq). Of course, every time that these attacks occur, oil prices increase for Americans in what has become a double whammy from President Donald Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to start no new wars and to lower costs for taxpayers (he has broken both promises with a single event).
It is not just the immediate front in Iran that is concerning. The war has expanded and reopened the Yemeni civil war and dragged the Iran-backed Houthis into direct conflict with Saudi Arabia, and because a drone attack (supposedly from Iraq) severely damaged the Saudi East-West pipeline, oil prices jumped to over $107.31 per barrel (Brent Crude) over the weekend (or $102.34 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate). As the Houthis seize more territory along the Bab al-Mandeb Strait from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, Iran’s position becomes bolstered (the Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 25% of the world’s oil, and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait adds another 9%, so Iran can potentially block one-third of the world’s oil market). Since Saudi Arabia began attacking the Houthis in recent weeks and the Iran-supported group has fired shots back into Saudi territory, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is requesting that the Trump administration intervene with airstrikes (the Saudi-backed forces have also made some gains of their own). If this happens, it will cause a major escalation in the Middle East (the Houthis have also been able to create a network to evade economic sanctions, so they are becoming a force to be reckoned with).
Perhaps even more bizarrely, President Trump announced last month that he might annex the Strait of Hormuz as a province of the American Empire, essentially stealing land from a sovereign nation. In addition to falsely claiming that the United States controls the strait (Iran is fighting back and also restricts access to the waterway), the president said that he may keep forces in Iran indefinitely in order to seize that nation’s oil permanently, like he did with Venezuela (or, he may end the war just after the midterms, and perhaps the possibility of ending the war will be tied to his favorable outcome, like the $5,000 unrealistic and fiscally irresponsible bribe that he announced to all Americans if Republicans somehow keep both houses of Congress during theatrical elections that will ultimately change nothing for Americans). At the end of the day, the Trump administration is suggesting that the United States is entitled to Iran’s oil, and it shows the imperial ambitions of our great emperor.
The Iran war is not just costing Americans money at the gas pumps. It is also causing a moral dilemma. Roughly two weeks ago, the United States military was haphazardly bombing areas around the Strait of Hormuz and targeted a communication tower in Kuhestak to retaliate against Iran’s attacks on American ships and bases. In the process, it turned a nearby wedding celebration into an event filled with death and chaos, and five people were killed, while sixty-seven people were wounded. We can sit here thousands of miles away and say that that is just the cost of war (a pointless one at that), but if you were at a friend’s or family member’s wedding, how would you feel in that situation? Whether the wedding was deliberately targeted by American forces, we should not be conducting these operations in the first place, and we cannot claim the moral high ground in this conflict if we are massacring civilians (recall that this is not the first time, and the Trump administration has the blood of over 100 Iranian schoolgirls at Minab on his hands as well). Americans have become desensitized to their own government killing people overseas, and we just shrug it off as no big deal, thus showing the moral degeneracy of our society (some of the most extreme and evil among us want to kill as many Arabs and Persians as possible because all Muslims are looked upon as the scum of the earth).
No update on Iran would be complete without showing the contributions of the United States’ “greatest ally.” After forcing the Trump administration into the war, Israel has largely kept out of it and let Americans sacrifice their lives on behalf of Benjamin Netanyahu’s corrupt regime. Instead, the Israeli military is focusing its operations on Lebanon, and it is blanket bombing villages and killing thousands of people (over one million people have been displaced, though some have now returned home). Most recently, Israel caused a 4.1-magnitude tremor (earthquake) after it bombed what it claimed were tunnels utilized by Hezbollah, and maybe it could stop abandoning the United States in Iran and leave Lebanon alone.
Furthermore, it was revealed last month that Israel’s claims that Iran was attempting to assassinate President Trump were unsubstantiated, and it is important to note that the Netanyahu regime is trying to manipulate American politics and cause drama in order to further its agenda (getting rid of the current Iranian government). Out of an abundance of caution, Secret Service, upon the prompting of Israel, snuck the president out of Turkey (Turkiye) on a different aircraft than what was scheduled, but neither the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) nor Turkish intelligence were aware of any legitimate plots.
Speaking of Turkey, Israel decided that it would purposely strike Abu al-Duhur Air Base, which is a Syrian military installation that is located only forty-five miles from the Turkish border, in order to intimidate Ankara from deploying troops there (intentional sabotage against a North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, ally). Israel is provoking tensions with Turkey, and the United States will likely side with its “greatest ally” over its NATO one if a full-scale conflict does break out. Israel is an aggressive nation that needs to have a leash put on it. The fact that its supporters can claim that it is innocently minding its own business and being attacked by a surrounding sea of Arab and Muslim countries is just pure lunacy and delusion.
If that were not enough, the House of Representatives just passed a bill to cut off federal funds for colleges and universities that contribute toward boycotts against Israel. Aside from the obvious fact that no other country gets such preferential treatment (the federal government is not protecting the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Australia, or South Korea in this manner), this is a potential violation of the First Amendment, as campuses will likely have to enforce federal anti-speech policies on its students in order to avoid being considered a participant in the boycotts (just like state governments coerced private businesses into enforcing mask and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic). Instead of focusing on issues that benefit American citizens, our politicians are more concerned with protecting a foreign nation and putting Israelis and Jews into a protected class (just like progressives and liberals do with categorizing classes of people for the purpose of policy and calling people racists).
Oh, but if you did not think that violating people’s free speech on colleges were bad enough, our authoritarian commander-in-chief is attempting to “hunt down” the journalists and investigators who revealed that the United States was running low on munitions because of the war efforts in Iran (journalists also raised concerns about the airplane that the president received from Qatar). Trump will not go after the pedophiles who trafficked children and were blackmailed by a foreign nation, but anything that makes the president look bad needs to be stopped immediately. Pro-Trump Republicans want to completely disregard the Constitution and blindly do whatever their dear leader tells them is correct.
In what appears to broaden the geopolitical scope of the Iran war, Ukraine is now targeting Iranian ships that are transporting goods between Russia and Iran in the Caspian Sea. Does this indicate that a larger global conflict is about to erupt if the what is happening in Iran begins to merge with the Russo-Ukrainian War (Russia and Ukraine have both ramped up missile and drone attacks against one another)? We already saw CIA Director John Ratcliffe make an unannounced emergency landing in Moscow to warn Russia about further escalation in Ukraine and Europe (particularly NATO countries). This comes around the time that Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom (Andrei Kelin) stepped down and Russia threatened to target UK positions in retaliation for supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Although we hope that World War III and nuclear war do not occur, we have been crawling dangerously close to it for many years. All it takes is for one wrong move or miscommunication and a chain of events can spiral out of control (World War I took an assassination to poke a hole in the damn that had been built up for years). The Iran war is one of the fronts that could trigger something much larger, and the longer that the Trump administration keeps Americans engaged there, the worse it will be for everyone. We should keep pressure on the federal government to withdraw from the conflict and bring the troops home, and everyone should at least speak out against what is happening to make it clear that we the people do not support his war.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, or website.