Debt Rattle August 19 2026
- This topic has 22 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1965 • Trump Vows New Strategy To ‘Strangle’ Iran Over Time (ZH) • Trump Drops Map Of Hormuz As “New US Territory” (ZH) •
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 19 2026]“Top Admiral Visits USS Lincoln, Suggests Reports Of Dire Conditions Are Greatly Exaggerated
What? Larry and all the Fox News guests from the CIA, as promoted on Murdoch’s Oligarch-run Network were LYING?
The vapors. I have the vapors, I say.And they were promoting CIA-Oligarch talking points, against the group cutting their power and going their ox? I’ve never heard the like.
PS. After The Invasion of Iraq, I always listened to Fox News and the CIA as reasonable, competent adults. Totally peace-minded, as George Bush proved. Nothing since 2002 has changed my view that both CIA and Fox have only peace and the US’s best interests in mind, never seeking personal or corporate power. I mean: Brennan and Pompeo, amirite?
“Amid Global Bond Bloodbath, Goldman Delta-One Desk Warns “Fed May Be Forced To Hike”
Ummm. Huh? You act like that’s a bad thing, a failure. Why? Rates are near-zero, at the subfloor of the 100 year long term average. They should be 8% or more. And we’re in a good economy, I hear? That’s what I see. So they should have been hiked years ago as a normal average event. Any Fed governor from 1913 to now would have cranked rates up to 8% YEARS before now.
Sooo…you think the economy is a fraud? Your data is a Fraud? The Fed is a fraud? Which? Because this headline makes no sense. That’s with the same people saying oil price inflation should mean Interest rates are 12, 18, 22% ! So raising would be doing what you want!
So they don’t believe what they believe at all. Now in reality? The underlying structure has changed. The only reason you ever wanted abnormally low rates IS TO MOVE THE WEALTH OF THE WORKERS TO FINANCIAL SPECULATORS. Yeah, we’re against that. ALSO TO ROB SAVERS, and make them learn to never save (so you can complain about their $5 Lattes and spendy ways later). Against that too. That’s why central banks exist, to steal; or now anyway.
But in the NEW structure, the U.S. — which has a thing called “an economy” – can tolerate 8% rates, 50% higher, but EUROPE CANNOT. This is a problem for them, not us. THEY will collapse, not us. And we will eat their lunch, both in the economic punishment, AND the capital flows from a crisis area, to a normal area. Exactly what Europe did to the Emerging Markets for 60 years.
Btw, that’s to some cruel punishment we’ve arranged for them. 8% is a normal rate there too, and they’re still near zero, getting choked out. They ALSO need to kill their financial speculation and re-capitalize their hard work. Like you think Italians and Germans are bad at building things? Although they’re behind us in time, they still CAN do that, just as we did/are. There’s no punishment we’re not assigning, no medicine we’re not also taking. They’re just being stupid and suicidal in defense of the ultra-uber rich.
So ZeroHedge here is laying down their lives to protect extractive colonialists who destroyed the U.S. and the ultra-wealthy globalists. Good show.
But raise rates? Help the U.S. industry, workers, and savers. Destroys financiers and globalists. Up to a limit of course. Bending rates creates winners and losers over a market rate. Imagine if Home Depot had to borrow at the same rate as Joe’s Hardware. Imagine if you borrowed at 10% to buy human-replacing robots instead of the purchase of robots being free. Winners and losers. And we’re pretty tired of it.
“A US sailor filmed the toilet instead of cleaning it.” -Kuhn (himself an ex-vet, 9 months on MREs in the desert) There’s a good point. Kids these days. Same as the 3rd World in Cueta: “That’s not my job!”. Vs our previous “West” attitude: “This is ours and I want it to be nice.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pLUv2PYiDoE. FangFang go BangBang. On Swawell.
Hey, everything every Nancy Pelosi, FBI, Committee, and media said about “There being no evidence” was actually all an enormous, elaborate lie. “Experts” again. Seems “Authority” is not to be trusted or appealed to. Almost like the Media was lying and in on it. Duh.
Iran’s $30,000 Troop Bounty STUNS Trump, US Navy DONE | Larry Johnson & Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
Trump had a sad. Oh noes. $30K they can’t pay for men that aren’t there. Wow. And every Navy ship sunk! Who knew? I’d say these guys are taking the last long branch of hanging themselves, but I’ve long since discovered it’s impossible to be discredited. I should look back 10 years, find the last 20 lies they made up that weren’t true. Trump nuked Tehran, remember? But why bother? That they’ve been wrong since Christ was a Corporal won’t change anybody’s mind. The Truth is my Fee-fees. If I FEEL it so much more, it must be True then! The Madder I am, the more I’m right! Madness rules!
“Saudis Offer To Sell Oil Near Oman, A Sign They’re Sailing Dark Through Hormuz
Hey Larry! Looking to add to constantly daily proof millions of barrels are transiting daily, slowly raising the shipping up near pre-war levels. And thus no crisis. How would we cross-check this? World Oil price is $84. Nowhere near high when they are clearly trying everything they can think of to make a mess. Everything.
What else? No bombs. Yemen is closing the sea, Iran is trying to make a halt with their jabber, not with ballistic missiles. If they could sink a Navy ship, HAD missiles, they would use them. So proof they do not. No doubt they have something, but they are very, very badly decayed. This does not mean they have to move or collapse though. They can remain inert and just rot for years, decades even. While everyone else sells, builds, advances. I expect they will.
“DOLLAR NEARING COLLAPSE AS WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY – w/ Philip & George Gammon”
That’s why the dollar is 101, Bonds are selling great, Stocks are all time highs, and both investment money and world capital is rushing in to America by near-trillions. …Because the dollar is about to be halved, and every trader in the world will lose. ‘Coz everyone in the whole wide world is stupid but you.
Meanwhile they are DEFINITELY investing in Germany, which is contracting at 8% per year, and England which is collapsing AND going into Civil War of some sort, or the rest of Europe which is both, AND overrun. Yup! That’s what “Collapse” means! Everybody’s buying!
“Minority Leader Jeffries Drops The Mask, Signals Democrats Are Coming For The Court
You might say “Oh, that’s just radical Jeffries mouthing off again”. No. Minority leader is the TOP OF THE GOVERNMENT. He’s in line for Speaker of the House, 3rd in line for Presidency so to speak. So this is not a “Fringe Democrat” thing. It’s CORE, as I’ve been saying for 10, gosh, 20+ years now. Because I talk to them all the time. Yes they are Socialists, and yes, they would erase all present forms of government, precisely as Socialists would. Here you go. Again.
But it’s just these few, right?
“Forbes Editor Fired Over $6m Payoff Had Threatened Companies Who Dared Hire Outgoing Trump Admin Officials In 2021
No, that’s an open and nationwide extortion racket. They will hunt, purge, and kill any conservative and any Trump official anywhere, worldwide. …Of course this is very profitable, but they’re really doing it for public service, not for money and power. It’s so BOURGEOIS to do it for the MONEY, exactly as CAPITALIST scum do. No. OUR making millions is the GOOD millions. You know: like Black Lives Matter. And they do only good work with those millions; like SPLC donating millions to the KKK for new hoods. And sexual favors. As the Good People™ do.
What’s the worst that could happen, though?
“DSA Lawmaker Claims Shoplifting For “Biological Need” Shouldn’t Be Illegal
All crime is now legal.
“Ghanaian migrant arrested four times in two weeks for sex attacks; previous arrests number more than 20…”
Cuetas destroyed in one week, more than a dozen rapes, including a 10 year old. The Socialist Prime Minister approves, is not mad, and is on vacation. You know, stuff like that could happen. What is the Left’s reaction to Cuetas, there and here? Mommy giving them more free things. They are mad at anyone who stops crime, theft, and rape. Purging anyone who speaks of the truth so it can be addressed and fixed. They are in favor of the scores of 3rd world diseases sinking the hospital. That’s Jeffries and the DSA/DNC plans, which are identical. How? Look at any Blue city in America, including DC.
“Why Teens Are Struggling To Find Summer Jobs”Because all levels of government have made it literally illegal to work. And are hunting them, anyone working, like rats. This works its way up from the bottom, which is where they are, but many Entrepreneurs also sit on the beach instead of working and creating new products and jobs for the same reason. The Social Engineers know this: human misery spread widely is the whole point.
Pentagon Weighing Permanent Smaller US Presence In Gulf (Just Don’t Call It Retreat)
Boy they sure like Empire. Going home is the worst thing that could ever happen for like 90% of people. I disagree. I for one am coherent in that going home is a good thing. Handing security to the locals is restoring a thing called “Sovereignty” and is honest and to be desired. So, #Winning, Thanks. So much winning I can hardly stand it.
I mean, you DO want Empire to end, right?
D says All crime is now legal.
I say consider this:
When the Rule of Law Fails This is a Warning of End of a Government
Today:
“Scott Bessent ADMITS gold is immune to deficits, debt, and war”What’s with the triumphalism? He never denied it nor anyone back to Bernanke. Um, yes, OF COURSE he said this. And beyond that Holy Duh, WE ARE GOING BACK ON A GOLD STANDARD. That’s WHY he said it. Now that’s in stages, but the way off the Triffin’s Paradox, gutting, Empire, crazy-train is to RE-PEG your currency, like Germany did, also after the war, or France under Napoleon. Boom: prosperity in mere months. All crazy things including cross-dressing Jazz Flapper girls on heroin in Berlin, all gone overnight.
So they SAY we can ONLY collapse, Simplicius, (although that takes 250 years) we can ONLY get into a war, Thucydides Trap, sir, which itself is made-up history to CLAIM this false end. “It’s inevitable, Mr. Anderson”. No. It is not. You can just RESTORE HONESTY. That’s it. That’s the magic. You can just enforce the law and rout out fraud. You’re just TRYING to collapse the nation and kill everyone, WANT it with all your heart, every drop of blood in your body, when we can just not, actually, and live normal and prosperous instead for no work at all.
The gold standard does that at a very high level, and we are not only doing that, with tariffs, with Tether stable coins, with productive capacity, one slice at a time, getting back on track to the “American System” of Hamilton. And not defaulting. As he had far greater problems in 1789 than we do today, and flipped it overnight. We were crushing Europe in only 30 years, with the opening of the Erie Canal.
“Former Fauci adviser David Morens pleads guilty to conspiracy”
What?? Criminal TALK and sometimes commit crimes together? This is not just a theory?
“cover up the truth about COVID, getting rich”
Socialists do it for the MONEY? Whuuuuuut?
“Trump Vows New Strategy To ‘Strangle’ Iran Over Time (ZH)
Iran doesn’t have to move. That was always the problem. They can always find a bomb or two, that was always the problem. They can indeed just rot and die, which takes decades. However, Saudi will have space planes and Iran will ride camels.
“President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency”
I’m glad we trust the polls since their amazing success since 2016, their being 20 points wrong in the MI Congressional primary yesterday, and where two different houses have Trump listed at 45% and 25% at the same time. Nothing says “accurate science” like that. Okay man. Do Americans like the war? No they do not. But they also don’t understand and care. The people who hate Trump would hate him if he cured cancer, and the people who don’t aren’t going to vote for Hakim Jeffries to install Sharia law and chop your d—k off. So you tell me.
“The story was an outrageous lie.”
That remains to be seen. However, they printed it with elation and slavish adoration, checking nothing.
“We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship.”
This is a measurable fact. They may be lying about it or something, but it’s a thing you can chart. I imagine suicide rates are pretty stable. And far too high.
Pic: AOC, Abdul, and Bernie, all in open support of Hasan Piker and letting American streets run red with your blood. Or they could disavow, right? Are the kids for it? Yes. Overwhelmingly. They are way energized by the DSA and piling in. However they are more than offset by a far, far larger center or normal Americans. Anyone who works, …And then the Zoomers have no patience for them at all. They’re probably the coffin nail of that s—t. They’re not in “Theory” of Gender-benders, womyn’s rights, gays, immigrants, or institutions. They’re only 20 and were raped white by all that s—t personally and just want it to go away. You can’t “Sell” them, you can’t convince them; they have personal daily experience with all these jokers, left, right, and center.
“What is particularly striking is the emergence of a kind of Islamo-Marxist movement, a fusion of radical socialist social ideals with a Sharia-based reinterpretation of society”
Not really, the Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood were close. And both have ties to MI6. They’re all anti-human, racist, authoritarians (Including MI6) so peas in a pod. But because they’re power-grubbing scumbags, the minute they kill all of us, they’ll turn on each other. It’s just that killing us is first. One SHOULD be surprised at “Gays for Gaza” and other ninny-headed nonsense, but historically this is a given.
The idiot kids on the Left are always first against the wall the minute Hitler or Stalin come to power. They’re killed so fast and thoroughly we forget how enormous the Brown Shirts were. Whole base, wiped out and replaced overnight. Too bad the college kids are illiterate or they’d read a book that this happens every time.
“The socialist Sánchez will do everything he can, much like the German government, to ensure that the flow of
migrationRapes does not stop.” Like his Socialist cohorts in Britain.Remember the horrors of Srebrenica? That’s just “Tuesday” in Cuetes and Rotherham. Thanks EU: Universal Human Uber alles. #Helping #Caring
“• FBI: Swalwell Did Admit to Sleeping with Alleged Chinese Spy (Turley)
The story here is EVERY FBI official knew it as an extensive, elaborate fact, with dozens of agents on surveillance, tens of thousands of pages of documents a key committee was run by the CCP, and approved it all. TO the highest level, with Pelosi, Speaker, #3, right to deposing the President. All FBI approved. So what’s that definition of “Treason” again? Helping China remove the President from office? Thousands and thousands and thousands of times.
“• Carney Speaks With Trump As 50% Tariffs Set To Take Effect At Midnight (JTN)
Canada is basically Iran I see. Both in support and in negotiation losses. They can expect to share Iranian prosperity.
Why? I don’t think this represents the Canadian people, will, or approach to life. He’s like some weird alien dropped in, entirely dissociated from Canada as a people, nation, and history.But again, what is YOUR plan for the restoration and health of Canada? What should they do long-term? What actions taken today will create that better future? I know what I would do, and I’ve said some of it. But what is YOUR productive, practical plan to restore your country and prevent it from collapse?
Viva la CIA! Viva la Fox News!
Which CIA and MI6 official should I listen to today? What stories can I tell to be of most help to the CIA and Globalists worldwide? Please, you have my instant obedience. Just give me The Memo. Your word is my command.
No crime. Although this is all over, here’s a recent one.
Being politicians, 1) I can’t stand them 2) He doesn’t say anything useful in the first 10 minutes so ff. But this is an official publicly stating her office will never be prosecuting any crimes. I image that’s not accurate. I imagine like UK they will jail tweets longer than rapists, and like Ontario, aggressively arrest anyone who defends themselves against armed burglars.
But one example. There are so many thousands, it’s hardly worth keeping track of them. Both SAID, and quite obviously enacted, as the $999 and it’s free law in California, or “It’s legal to light police cars on fire” in NYC.
https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/israel-strikes-airport-in-syria-while
Israel strikes airport in Syria, while Iran mocks Trump in response to his claims over Hormuz
Plus news and updates from Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and UAE.
Ismaele
Aug 18, 2026Earlier tonight, Al Mayadeen and RNN Mirror reported that, according to Axios, the Israeli attack was aimed to prevent a Turkish military buildup, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claiming that “Syria was on the verge of violation by allowing Turkish forces to deploy at an air base near Aleppo”.
———–
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/ukraines-economy-braces-for-disaster
Ukraine’s Economy Braces for Disaster as Zelensky Faces New Political Challenge
Simplicius
Aug 18, 2026
————–China supposedly added 200,000 barrels per day of oil to their oil reserves, during the month of July!
How is this possible if Iran is blocking the strait?
All the video creators say this is not possible!
Are they all lying?
The video’s unnamed sponsor, the City of London/Globalists must be really hurting!The Danger of Trump’s ‘Victory’
Reportedly Trump has announced intentions to officially declare the Strait of Hormuz to be United States Territory.
In separate news D Benton Smith just proclaimed himself crown Emperor of the galaxy.
I expect you yahoos to start kowtowing immediately.
Hello DBS.
Oil Soars Back above $90/bb as Trump Admin Lies about Oil Traffic through Hormuz Being Back to Normal!
In the world of Trump’s constant chaos, it is all lies all the time to create denial and keep us seasick from a continual state of upheaval and unreality.https://www.thedailydoom.com/p/oil-soars-back-above-90bb-as-trump
How USA & Israel put drug cartel-linked puppet in power in this country
Colombia’s former President Gustavo Petro formally accused the USA and Israel of meddling in his country’s election to put in power new far-right leader Abelardo de la Espriella, a US citizen and Trump ally who worked as a lawyer for years in Miami, Florida, defending drug traffickers. Ben Norton explains.
Check out our related video on the Sandinista Revolution and Nicaragua’s resistance against US imperialism: • This country is resisting US meddling, and…
Topics
0:00 US & Israeli meddling in Colombian election
2:34 US-backed coups in Latin America
4:23 Abelardo de la Espriella, US citizen
6:36 De la Espriella defended drug traffickers
8:19 US govt supports drug traffickers
11:17 De la Espriella’s business interests
12:14 De la Espriella’s botox scandals
13:40 Far-right paramilitaries in Colombia
15:42 Sociopathy
16:23 Colombia’s new right-wing regime
16:52 Marco Rubio
17:27 US military alliance with Colombia
18:27 US-backed narco leader Álvaro Uribe
19:58 Marco Rubio’s extremist ties
20:34 War on Drugs 2.0
22:13 Ecuador’s narco-dictator Daniel Noboa
23:38 Operation Condor 2.0
25:27 Colonialist Donroe Doctrine
26:53 Gustavo Petro cut ties with Israel
28:48 Israel’s new alliance with Colombia
29:53 Colombia: the Israel of Latin America
31:08 Israel occupies Syria’s Golan Heights
32:50 Morocco occupies Western Sahara
33:23 Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
36:00 Morocco supports Israel
36:53 US backs Morocco in Western Sahara
38:09 Colombia’s relations with China
39:39 US Cold War Two against China
40:22 US puppet regimes in Latin America
41:15 US National Security Strategy
42:45 Neocolonialism
43:56 Anti-imperialist resistance
45:23 Outro|| Geopolitical Economy Report ||
Why Trump’s blockade cannot turn Iran into an island
Pepe Escobar
August 19, 2026
The U.S. may blockade Iran on the seas. But it cannot blockade Iran’s geographyJoin us on Telegram, X, and VK.
Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su
Iran so far has been running the clock.
Now, Iran is speeding up the management of the clock.
Even strategic patience has its limits. Tehran kept a nutcracker on the Strait of Hormuz for 5.5 months. The Empire of Piracy didn’t back off. On the contrary: the reaction, piling up on Trump’s blockade, focused on ruthless, terminal market manipulation keeping oil prices relatively low – using everything from depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to DARPA employing AI tools to manipulate markets.
Terrible costs are about to be paid in full – via a global depression; further rejection of Western “values” – and swindling schemes – all across the Global South; and an inevitable cleavage between two world systems.
Iran cannot continue on the path of a slow Strait of Hormuz strangulation – as it runs the risk of reversing gains as time goes by. Iran is bound to weaken along with everybody else in a Global Great Depression. That’s definitely not a long term solution for a proud, sovereign, resilient civilization-state with millennial determination when it comes to dignified self-sufficiency.
The leadership in Tehran has perfectly understood that the Empire’s new – actually – back to old – beat is to financially and economically smother Persia, as it was done, for instance, to Syria.
It gets worse. Much worse: the current normalization of unleashing tactical nukes in “discussions” at the Empire’s tables. If genocide has been normalized – by the whole, collective, fragmented West – why not nuclear bombing (but only by the Empire)?
Tehran is very much aware that a long dark cloud may be coming down. So the time is right for cranking the speed on the clock. Mohsen Rezaee – new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and personal representative of Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – is setting the tone. There’s no other way than to go all out to force the Hegemonic Old Order to bow down.
Coercive, but not decisive
Trump’s naval blockade may be wreaking some havoc on Iran; but by itself it cannot alter a substantial part of the architecture that keeps Iran connected to Eurasia.
The blockade did damage Iran’s seaborne crude trade. Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed. Depending on the tracking source, Iran’s crude exports have fallen from approximately 1.8–2.0 million barrels a day before the blockade to below 300,000 barrels a day.
That’s a major coercive pressure. Yet Iran is far from geographically isolated. Rail connections across Central Asia; commercial traffic across the Pakistan land borders (at least 6 channels); the Caspian route to Russia; the International North–South Transportation Corridor (INSTC): all that remains in effect – and in the case of the INSTC actually expanding, even though the infrastructure remains incomplete.
Some Iranian crude continues to escape through ship-to-ship transfers, particularly off Malaysia. Cargo leaving Iranian waters is transferred offshore to obscure its origin before moving onward, principally toward Asian buyers.
During the June–July truce, roughly twenty tankers moved approximately USD6 billion in crude this way. Of course that’s not a substitute for Iran’s pre-war export system – as the process relies on a finite shadow fleet operating under tremendous sanctions pressure.
Yet the key point is that the American blockade leaks.
So the blockade may be coercive but it’s not decisive – no matter the torrents of spin by Trump cronies/assorted grifters.
Moving to direct U.S.-Iran talks, they are mired in a wild ocean of contradictions.
The IRGC and the Foreign Ministry have publicly – and explicitly – denied any active direct American channel in effect. The IRGC mocked the American claim as psychological warfare – even as Trump publicly spun an established, direct backchannel to the IRGC.
Well, a backchannel in fact exists: that’s the May 2026 channel through Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani to senior IRGC leadership. It went dormant. It may have even been kept, informally, on unresolved status mode – while Tehran denies it.
“Diplomacy” is not exactly familiar as Big Macs to Trump; threats are. Cue to the now public threat to bomb Oman by name on two separate occasions.
Oman is far from a peripheral actor. Muscat is simultaneously: one of the GCC’s most durable intermediaries; deeply involved in the Iran diplomatic channel; and co-negotiating the emerging Hormuz transit mechanism.
So the threat – twice – of bombing Oman means POTUS going directly against the very mini-state helping to build a possible off-ramp for the Empire.
No wonder there was no official Omani government statement responding to the threats. No statement from the Sultan.
No statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Muscat’s silence though should not be misread. Silence is not acquiescence. Silence is not defiance. Silence may be part of a wily diplomatic strategy: something to remain usable to both sides.
No way to blockade Iran’s geography
The port of Gwadar in the Arabian Sea – a key plank of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – has become strategically paramount as a land-transit gateway to Iran.
That’s how it works. Cargo arrives at Gwadar; is consolidated; moves overland approximately 89 km to the Gabd crossing; then enters Iran by road. The process is much shorter than moving the same cargo through Karachi – reducing time and cost.
Still, we have no evidence that Iranian-flagged ships are routinely calling at Gwadar or that Iranian maritime cargo is being loaded and discharged in what amounts to an Iranian shipping route.
Then there’s the Caspian: the crucially strategic route immune to the U.S. Navy.
As I saw it last year while filming a documentary on the INSTC,
Iranian Caspian ports such as Bandar Anzali connect mostly to Russia, especially Astrakhan.
Since the blockade, Iranian Caspian ports have increased their operating tempo; Bandar Anzali is approaching full capacity, moving grain; agricultural products; industrial goods; components; and above all strategic trade between BRICS members Iran and Russia.
There’s nothing the U.S. Navy can do on the Caspian, as the 2018 Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea excludes extra-regional naval powers.
Along the 7,200-km long INSTC connecting Russia, Iran and India, Russia-Iran cargo has been growing very fast – although there are infrastructure problems, such as the missing Rasht–Astara rail connection inside Iran.
And the fact that the INSTC maritime route from Chabahar in Sistan-Balochistan to India for the moment is not functioning as a meaningful wartime relief channel.
Iran is actually at the heart of two connectivity architectures: the China–Central Asia–Iran railway, part of BRI/New Silk Roads; and the Iran–Russia Caspian route, part of the INSTC. These are in fact two intersecting corridors: one East-West, the other North-South.
Then there’s the Trans-Caspian, or Middle Corridor – which does not run through Iran: that’s China-Kazakhstan-Caspian – Azerbaijan-Georgia-Türkiye-Europe. The Middle Corridor actually bypasses Iran.
So what all of the above can tell us about Trump’s blockade?
In a nutshell: the U.S. may blockade Iran on the seas. But it cannot blockade Iran’s geography.
After all Iran is at the heart of a cross-Eurasia network, including Pakistan, the Central Asian “stans”, Russia, the Caspian Sea, and China.
What the current “no peace, no war” stalemate is doing is exponentially increase the network’s strategic value. The network prevents maritime coercion from becoming complete physical isolation. Forget about the U.S. profiting from a strategic closure.
If anything, Iran going on the offense might in fact provoke another type of strategic closure. Iran retains a multi-layered anti-access architecture including long-range anti-ship missiles; naval mining capability; and submarines designed for operations in shallow and constrained waters.
And then, geography compounds the problem. Large American naval forces operating relatively close to a super-hostile coastline will have to face very short warning distances and much reduced dispersal space.
The American blockade has indeed devastated the largest single channel through which Iran earned hard currency – or petroyuans. But it has not – and geographically cannot – reduce Iran to an island, as Iran continues to connect east, north and southeast through land, rail and inland-sea networks.
Every single day that architecture, operating under pressure, increases the incentive for Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan and the Central Asian “stans” to deepen it.
And to deepen Eurasia integration – the most crucial geopolitical development of the 21st century.
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.
Tags:
Donald Trump
Iran
Middle East
Persian Gulf
United States
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.