Tehran will never cede control of Strait of Hormuz, senior Iranian politician tells BBC

Israel's prime goal is to have an Iran that has no interest or no ability to deliver nuclear weapons to its population. Through continued war, the latter can be taken a few steps back; through a change of Iranian regime, the former, which would coat less and achieve more. War is the last option for Israel, and would be gladly stopped if goals are reached, one way or another.

Well we gotta use the $200,000 Ninja Missiles for *something*

I thought James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Richard Nixon were bad, but Trump makes them look like Presidential giants in comparison.

Agreed. The regime is a serius threat. And we're stuck with an idiot for president and a world wide commentariate more interested in backing the IRGC to prove trumps a dumbass than having a conversation about the longer term implications of having religeous nut bags where they are.

There was plenty of reasons to delay this further: 1.) There remains no evidence they were "weeks away" from having a nuclear weapon. Also no evidence that the "war is over", and everything else Trump rambles on about. 2.) As part of the JCPOA, Iran allowed extensive international inspections (IAEA). The US withdrew from this deal in 2018. And slowly inspections became more restricted and inconsistent. This war, everything Trump is doing, is part of what he does. Some decent/good things are in place, instead of trying to make things better he makes things worse. He knew Obama played a huge role in the JCPOA, couldn't have that, and decided to withdraw and put pressure on Iran and... here we are. The art of the deal. I'm not saying the JCPOA is great or perfect but what Trump is doing from 2018 to now is worse as evidenced by everything going on. 3.) Ali Khamenei, at least publicly, was against nuclear weapon development. He was 86 and the supreme leader of Iran. Why not try and create a new deal with this guy, instead of making him to a martyr and letting the radicalists in the IRGC get a larger foothood? Escalation just strengthens IRGCs influence. My thoughts? Trump wanted another Venezeula moment. He thought take this guy out, show some fire power, put some pressure, and they'll get a regime change. It defintely feels he was taken aback by the Straight Closure, and everything else going on. On top of this, he had to commit and threaten multiple war crimes along theway. There is no good guy here. 4.) This is all adding to American debt. We are not in Europe. We are not in Asia. We are not in Africa. Why ICBMs can reach us, we should continue to invest in our defense program. This is a large benefit of being on the other side of the world. If we're going to attack Iran - it should be in partnership with our allies in the East. They have just as much as stake if not more given their close proximity. 5.) This is all having massive global effects in a very sensitive time in our economy imo. Trump has backed away from other sources of energy like solar and electric, and pushed more reliance to fossil fuels so a war like this is only going to hit our wallets harder. In reality the USA energy grid/supplies should be more diverse. The Iran War is increasing inflation, slowing global growth, driving up prices, in a time where Americans are losing their jobs every month as companies push & spend billions on AI. Now we have Americans looking for jobs with surging gas prices. There was definitely ways to delay this and/or even prevent this. Trump wasn't interested.

Yes! Thanks, I have edited it

And this is exactly why Trump/Israel were utterly moronic to attack Iran. It was CLEARLY not well thought out. The Iranians have probably planned for such possibilities for years. They will make the US and world bleed as much as possible to get what they want.

Oh yes. There is going to be a ton of damage to go around.

China is not hurt at all. Yet. They have a massive stockpile and on top of that, Iran has tens of millions of barrels in a 'floating storage'. A lot of tankers that went out some time ago, mostly iddling in southeast Asia that are slowly selling the oil. They can keep selling for 3-4 more weeks before that runs out and until then both Iran and China won't feel that much pressure on that front.

~~China isn't really hurting at all.~~ China is hurting but not as much as most countries. They could be the largest benefactor in the long run. They have direct oil pipelines from Russia and huge strategic reserves and a large domestic manufacturing base. For Pacific Island nations (like Fiji, Tonga, and New Caledonia) that are entirely dependent on diesel for both maritime transport and electricity. China can step in as a fuel savior for basing rights and port access. This could permanently shift the balance of power in the Pacific, moving these strategically vital islands into China’s sphere of influence which would help them with their ambitions on Taiwan. Also consider that increased economic pain related to oil will accelerate the transition to renewables and as the world attempts to achieve energy independence, they'll turn to China who is far and away the world’s dominant supplier of solar panels, batteries, and wind turbine components. China and Russia can't be too bothered by it.

All of these moved are preplanned and very intentional. While toppling Iran and its terrorist proxies is great, let be clear they are not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. Someone somewhere, is making an absolute truckload or money.

All they realistically need to do is maintain the blockade and choke the Iranian economy. Can’t see them putting boots on the ground.

The conventional war in Afghanistan took maybe 3 months between 9/11 and the end of all open resistance and the shift to counterinsurgency. The US military is *really* good at fighting state actors. The problem is always what happens afterwards.

this is an assumption that the US wouldn't just instantly bomb the heck out of any way that iran makes money.