| ▲ | jillesvangurp 6 hours ago | |
Chances are that this was a calculated outcome that was found desirable. The potential closure of that strait has been the topic of intelligence reports going back more than half a century. People talk a lot about Trump. But he's of course not acting alone. The big picture here is that this wasn't as impulsive as it may seem and was rather enthusiastically supported by the team that runs day to day policy for him. The worrying thing of course is that things aren't exactly going as planned. Which by itself was entirely predictable and widely predicted from day 1. But the point here is that Trump is a stooge and focusing on just him is a mistake. Follow the money. His presidency was bought and paid for. Partially with oil money and the accompanying hard line towards the middle east. Those are the same deep pockets behind the Gulf wars I and II. And we might as well start referring to this one as edition III. A lot of that money comes from Texas. Where all the oil and gas is. Texas exports oil and gas. That stuff becomes more lucrative if the Strait of Hormuz is closed. And it looks like rebuilding infrastructure might take a few years. IMHO, they overestimated how successful they were going to be with this and all the disruptive effects (e.g. Maga supporters getting angry at Trump) because of oil driven inflation at the pump might be backfiring a bit. But it's easy to see how the decision making could have gone if you just follow the money. | ||