A Chinese view: Iran has already won

I think I agree with this substack by a retired Chinese businessman.

Now that a regime change is off the table, the US war objective has changed to keep Strait of Hormuz open.

This change alone tells you the US has already lost the war since the Strait of Hormuz was open before the war. Essentially, the US is prosecuting the war to merely return to the pre-war status quo.

And even this modest goal is unlikely to be achieved without costing thousands of US lives since it has no choice but to send in ground troops.

Gas price, the default barometer of US voters’ ability to absorb pain, has gone from $2.9 per gallon to $3.9.

Amazingly, that society’s focal point about foreign wars is always the impact on gas prices, and never the legality or morality of the atrocities. Or the cost to the nation as a whole.

In a twist of supreme irony, the Trump regime is now un-sanctioning Iranian and Russian oil in an attempt to lower gas prices.

Rather than crippling Iran’s finances, Trump is helping Iran’s finances in the middle of an unprovoked war against it.

It is safe to bet that Iran will emerge as the strongest power in West Asia at the end of the war. It will have a de facto control of Middle Eastern energy supply as it dictates who can or cannot pass through the Strait of Hormuz.