How to win the war.

In spite of all the negative publicity being spewed, the war is going much better than could have been expected. The Iranian regime has been crippled, even if it isn’t yet ready to surrender.

Trump must win the war against the ayatollahs. If he settles for half measures by declaring victory and leaving the evil regime, weakened but still in power, he will lose political support and likely become a lame duck president after the mid-term elections. He will also go down in history as a loser. Hence reducing the world price of oil is essential.

The key problem is the Straits of Hormuz. Opening this narrow passageway is difficult or impossible while Iran controls the land bordering one side of the strait. It also would be easy for the US or Saudi Arabia to block this also, if they wanted to.

Hence the first strategy must be to create alternatives for getting Gulf oil to market.  There are already oil pipelines that bypass the strait, by piping oil to Saudi ports on the Red Sea, but they aren’t big enough. Initiate a crash project to build additional lines big enough to deliver all oil from the Gulf States to the Red sea and to the Mediterranean. The Saudis and others like Qatar have more than enough money to pay for this project and with technical help from the US it could be done in months, not years. It may take a little time, but simply initiating the project now will pressure Iran, and in any case is essential to prevent future blackmail.

Secondly remind Iran that blocking the Strait of Hormuz is much easier than opening it. Threaten the Iranian regime that the Strait will be closed in future for Iranian exports for twice as long as it is now closed to gulf oil unless they open it immediately. Blocking the strait would be an easy job for the US navy.

A further strategy would be to make every possible effort to expand oil production in other areas of the world. Venezuela has huge undeveloped oil reserves. Get cracking on developing them. Push the UK and Norway to expand production in the North Sea. Do everything possible to expand US oil production. Canada also has large oil reserves, try to figure ways of getting it to market. It’s essential to reduce the world’s dependence on Middle East oil.

This multi-pronged approach would give us enough time to achieve real victory in this war.