the empire has earned this defeat and deserves to 'reap' it;

 

 Iran and Oman are reportedly finalizing a deal to control the Strait of Hormuz, charging ships fees for passage, and potentially blocking ships from “hostile countries.” Trump resumed bombing in early July to prevent Iran from doing just that, and President Donald Trump has flitted between claiming the United States will control Hormuz and charge tolls, pretending the strait is already open and threatening to “hit very hard” if Iran doesn’t fully open it soon.

Yet Trump and other top U.S. officials, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, are touting the Iran-Oman talks as diplomatic progress, indicating they’re going to accept a deal on Iran’s terms.

This would arguably be America’s most blatant loss in war ever, especially for a war the U.S. started.

In February, before Trump started the war, Hormuz was open, treated as an international waterway, free to all. The U.S. was widely considered the dominant military power in the region. Gulf Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait — made U.S. dominance the basis of their national security and economic strategies. And Iran was engaged in talks over its nuclear program, albeit unlikely to make significant concessions.

On June 17, after a lot of bombing, some extreme threats and a couple of ceasefires, the U.S. signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran that was mostly an American surrender. The deal front-loaded sanctions relief and other economic benefits for Iran, and punted on all U.S. war aims. Iran agreed to nonspecified nuclear talks in the future, which the U.S. had before attacking. The written document requires both parties not to threaten each other (Trump violated that almost right away) and committed Israel to end operations in Lebanon (which they never agreed to, and wouldn’t). It effectively acknowledged Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, saying Iran would “make arrangements” to manage it with Oman, and wouldn’t charge any fees “for 60 days only.”...........more............