The truce announcement on Monday between Iran and the U.S. led to a massive stock market rally, but no street rallies on our streets. In Iran, regime supporters did take to the streets to celebrate – celebrate what they considered to be a great victory over the combined forces of the United States and Israel.
Now, the Iranian rallies were no doubt arranged forcibly by the powers that be. Still, the point is that Iran’s mullahs and military leaders do view the cessation of hostilities as a victory for their country. Here, MAGAistas celebrated — and breathed a sigh of relief — while Democrats denounced Trump and sought his removal from office.
I hate to side with the Demofiends on the success or failure of this mission, but it looks like Iran, at least so far, gained the most. They now control the Strait of Hormuz, where they charge transiting oil tankers a fee of $1 a barrel of oil, or $2 million per ship — I’ve heard both tariffs. Either way, it’s a lot of money.
What really concerned me was that it was our country that blinked. Rather than carry out a “civilization-ending” threat, President Trump chose a quick, unexpected closure and accepted Iran’s 10-point ceasefire plan, which included control of the strait and all kinds of other benefits for the land of the Ayatollah Khamenei (the second).
Let’s see how peace negotiations proceed starting Saturday, and hope that we get something out of the deal to make us look like winners, instead of like a country that depleted its arms supplies to the point that moving forward might test our ability to resupply our tools of war.
If I were Xi Jinping, I’d move on Taiwan immediately while the U.S. is both preoccupied and depleted of arms supplies. I’m not advocating that, just speculating about how we are now viewed on the world stage.
