> the US started the Iran war to maintain a blockade to control both the EU and China

Where are you getting this from? That’s not even remotely close to my understanding of the situation

You won't find it in the mainstream press. This administration is about "pivoting to China" (i.e., controlling China more). Elbridge Colby, who is a main China hawk, is undersecretary of defense now.

Here is a write-up on the China part:

https://www.hudson.org/national-security-defense/iran-strike...

For broader geopolitical chess games the "Path to Persia" and "Extending Russia" papers are all time favorites.

The EU part isn't that explicit. It is a mixture of the US wanting to take the Greenland Arctic Sea route, sabotaging energy deliveries from Russia and making the EU dependent on US LNG. Now the EU is even more dependent on the US and there is no sign that the US wants Hormuz open. It is stalling, in my opinion deliberately.

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amanaplanacanal 14 hours ago | parent [-]

I think it's stalling because there is no support for the war in the US, and the political cost of actually opening the straight is higher than they are willing to pay. Notice the US is now declaring that the war is over, so they don't have to go justify it in Congress.

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cmrdporcupine 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Unlikely to be even the bulk of the explanation. There has been zero cost to them (both administration and congress) in pursuing what they're pursuing and keeping the conflict hot, so no reason to stop. And congress is in on the act, they don't give a crap.

Were you under the illusion your house of representatives was representing you?

Oil per-barrel price is up so American energy exporter profits are up. At the same time, total quantity of exported barrels from the US and Canada are up as well because they have become the most "stable" supplier.

Stock market is also up, or at least flat, but "predictably" up where it needed be to keep the right people happy. Insider trading and a cycle of "taco-tuesdays" has allowed key parties to make absolutely insane amounts of money at the same time.

Trump is boldly incompetent and bumbling as a person. But the people telling him what to do are not. He's there to make them rich and he's doing a fabulous job of it.

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cybercatgurrl 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

representatives haven’t been doing any representing for a very long time in the west. why do you think people drone on about increasing taxes on the rich? the only people being represented are the already wealthy

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amanaplanacanal 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They are all very aware that the midterms are coming up in six months. An unpopular war in the middle east could make the blowout even worse than it is already likely to be. Those bastards would certainly like to keep their jobs. You think they aren't thinking about this?

	▲	cmrdporcupine 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The fact that the Trump regime is acting in the way it is and extending this conflict as long as it has without resolution tells me that they're not really so concerned with midterms. Which, I mean, that should concern you as a US voter. Why aren't they? I think Trump is a) fine with losing the house because they will hold the senate, regardless, and he is fine with ruling like a king and abusing executive power. b) they're actively rigging things to pull a rabbit out the hat in November anyways. Getting a Putin-esque (or, actually more like Erdogan or Netanyahu) type persona out of power by elections is incredibly hard.

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cmrdporcupine 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's clear the net effect is a subsidy to the North American hydrocarbon sector at the expense of Europe and China and India. Oil prices were falling, now they're not. Places like Alberta were going to run a deficit because oil prices were low. Now they're not. People were buying from the middle east. Now they're less-so.

Stated goals and whether this was accidental is a whole other question.

I'm not sure why people as a whole don't seem to have absorbed the fact that North America is an energy exporting economy now, not a net importer.

The question is whether North American consumers really like that they're paying so much more at the pump (and, shortly, for food prices) on account of oil executives making off like bandits.

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cybercatgurrl 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

americans don’t have to like anything. they do as their told

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dgellow 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Ok, if we mean the effect I agree. But the parent was talking about intent, or at least that’s how I read it

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cmrdporcupine 15 hours ago | parent [-]

What do we actually know about the intent of any of these lunatics?

At that level of decision making and power this is not something that is ever going to be clear.

You can only go based on material effect.

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delecti 14 hours ago | parent [-]

Going to war with Iran has been the unambiguous goal of Israel for decades. In absence of strong evidence to the contrary, the default assumption should be that that was the motivation.

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cmrdporcupine 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Both things can be true -- but why is it so hard to absorb that when you have heavy stock market investors and people connected to the energy sector literally running the largest military on earth that they'd be working on behalf of their own financial interests and those of their patrons, rather than on some vague ideological or religious motivations?

We are not dealing with detached neo-liberal political bureaucrats from 20 years ago. The American people explicitly elected the foxes to run the hen house. This is the result.

Also, I am an opponent of the Israeli state and its domestic and foreign policy. But seeing its wishes as some sort of puppet master over the United States verges into anti-Semitic conspiracy theory territory.

I prefer material, economic explanations. It's just as likely that elites in Israel have the same economic interests as well.

	▲	dgellow 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t think the claim is puppet mastering, more the fact that Trump is very easy to manipulate by inflating his ego, something Netanyahu has been doing publicly since a while. Though the reporting is pretty confusing, it’s not clear if Trump is the one who convinced Netanyahu to go in or the other way. The various leaked meetings are all from anonymous sources. The result is the same though, at least for now. Might as well focus on the economic aspects you mentioned. In any case the global economy is fucked for a while