The Trump Blockade Will Fail
On 12 April 2026, I was on the “Switzerland” podcast with Josh Landis, one of the world’s leading experts on Syria, and the host Tom Switzer. In the wake of the failed negotiations in Islamabad, President Trump announced that the US was going to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, which means that Iranian oil will no longer flow out of the Persian Gulf into world oil markets. No more oil profits for Tehran.
The underlying assumption is that this policy will inflict massive punishment on Iran, causing it to surrender to US and Israeli demands. I made the case that not only will it not work as planned, but it will work against the US because that Iranian oil is essential for limiting the economic damage being done to the world economy. Of course, this is why the US has allowed Iranian oil to flow into the global market up until now. As I have emphasized many times, the Trump administration is playing a losing hand.
Josh, Tom, and I talked about numerous other issues regarding the Middle East.
We are creating a blockade to block a blockade that only exists because our president is a blockhead.
Iran seems always to have been on Israel's hit list as were the other Middle Eastern countries we took out in this 21st century, terrorist states the Net called them, so why talk about it as if any resolution in regard to Iran's nuclear program would satisfy Israel? I'm sick of Israel, and sick of her always portraying herself as a victim, and in doing so has gained a great deal of power in the US and has grabbed hold of our agenda as well as our perspective on the Middle East. She can implement a genocide, and we help, and still she remains a victim. Pretty much was true of how we used Russia, a boogeyman, that was also forever on our hit list, and I'm sure the military industrial complex loves it. We have played Israel's game to our own detriment and it's time to stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!