LOS ANGELES (OC).–Hitting a Thai-fl;aged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran claimed they would send oil to 200 a barrel, playing on world public opinion to stop President Donald Trump and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s war with Iran. With daily ordnance falling all over Iran, there’s not much left to Iran’s military capability other than its ballistic missile program now with dwindling supplies of Shahed drones-and-missiles and launchers. Iran’s launchers have been decimated around the country but still have enough left to wreak havoc on Arab Gulf States, hoping to pressure Trump and Netanyahu to end the war. But instead to turning the Arab Gulf States against Israel, Iran has made generational enemies with Sunni Muslim countries, forever distrustful of Iran’s Shiite ways. Trump has Iran exactly where he wants it, politically isolated without any allies.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have worked on a military strategy of destroying drone-and-rocket launchers at strategic spots around the country. Now Trump and Hegseth must pivot to eliminated the threat Iran poses to global shipping in the Persian Gulf. When it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, it’s wider than the Catalina Channel off the coast of Los Angeles. So, there’s plenty of room for multiple tankers to make it through the strait without inciden. Trump said recently that there’s “practically nothing left to target” in Iran, yet the Strait of Hormuz still has Iran attacking global shipping. Pivoting to the Strait of Hormuz, Trump would open up global shipping, allowing global energy prices to fall, now at $91 a barrel. If Iran had not hit the Thai tanker today, oil might have dropped to under $80 a barrel, paving the way to normal $60 a barrel prices.
Democrats and the fake news have been obsessed with a Cruise missile strike in the first day of war that hit a girls school right next to the Iran Republican Guard Corps headquarters. Looks like the Cruise missile missed its target by a little unfortunately killing 168 children and teachers. Trump showed reluctance to show attribution, claiming that other countries used Cruise missiles. But even if the U.S. were responsible for the errant missile, that’s the price of war but, more importantly an example of how Iran uses schools as human shields. Democrats and the fake news look for anything to discredit Trump before the 2026 Midterm elections where Democrats hope to take back the House to thwart Trump’s agenda for his last two years in office. Iran has only recently admitted that newly minted Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously wounded in the same strike the killed his father, Ali Khamenei.
` Iran has been bluffing about its vaunted military for years, only recently confirmed by last year’s 12-day war on its nuke fackilities. When it comes to Mojtaba, he apparently more badly injured from the Israeli strike with leg and abdominal injuries, some say amputated his leg. Whatever the situation, he’s clearly used by the mullah regime as a spoil to let the wolrd know that the mullah regime isn’t going anywhere. Trump said Mojtaba was “unacceptable” as a news leader because he continued the same repressive policies as his father. Chanes now of getting a popular uprising. With the IRGC and Basij military holding the guns, it’s difficult for the people to fight back without facing a bloodbath, like what happened in Dec. 2025 and January 2026 when the regime slaughtererd protesters in the streets. Trump told the Iranian people that help was on the way.
When it comes to military objectives at this point, it’s doubtful Trump can get regime change without putting boots on the ground or, more realistically, arming Iran’s Kurds to help push a popular uprising against mullah rule. Trump knows there’s no support domestically for escalating the war into a prolonged conflict of regime change. Since Trump has achieved his objective of degrading Iran’s military, it only makes sense for the U.S. military to go after the IRGC in the Strait of Hormuz where they attacked a Thai-flagged tanker today. Pivoting to the Strait of Homuz to neutralize the Iranian threat would dramatically reverse the current spiral in oil markets. Iran wants the world to think it can spiral the price of oil to over $200 a barrel, a preposterous assumption.
Iran has been severely limited by global sanctions of selling its crude oil primarily to chian and India. Using proxy tankers flagged with various countries without sanctions, Iran manages to sell enough crude oil but has little impact in the U.S. Crude oil traders have been given a hey day by Trump with his war with Iran, exploiting the situation for anything they can get. Well, there’s nothing wrong with greed, but neutralizing Iran’s threat in the Strait of Hormus is the fastest way to restore runaway global oil prices. Iran should not be allowed by the global shipping industry to control the flow of oil in international shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. Only through its rogue activity has Iran intimidated other countries when they have no claim to sovereignty in the 22 mile wide Strait. Time is right for Trump to foscus U.S. military assets on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
