SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Donald Trump says Iran has OPENED the Strait of Hormuz, but US🇺🇸 hegemony may have taken a fatal hit

https://x.com/afshinrattansi/status/2045173826229805285

Afshin Rattansi

BREAKING: Donald Trump says Iran has OPENED the Strait of Hormuz, but US hegemony may have taken a fatal hit

After over a month and a half of devastating war unleashed on Iran by the US and Israel, the destabilisation of the GCC, and a brutal energy shock experienced by the entire world, at last an agreement has been reached between the US and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

While Donald Trump will paint this as 'winning like you've never seen it before' in a 'mission accomplished moment', the exact opposite is true. The original goals of the war were categorically not accomplished. Billions were wasted to replace Ayatollah Khamenei with Ayatollah Khamenei. The mass uprisings are still nowhere to be seen, and Iran appears more unified than ever. No repeat of the Syria scenario.

After Pete Hegseth's press conferences, with a permanent scowl on his face, announcing 'the next day of strikes will be the hardest yet', almost daily, for weeks on end, it was blatantly obvious that the most powerful military in the history of the world could not defeat Iran, a middle power in comparison.

Despite the tens of thousands of strikes by the US and Israel, Iran was still firing missiles and drones on a daily basis, and only the beginning of negotiations could make Iran cease fire. Its drone and missile capabilities were not obliterated...that much is obvious. 

Despite Hegseth and Trump declaring time and time again that Iran's Navy was at the bottom of the ocean, the Strait of Hormuz remained shut...because Iran did not need aircraft carriers, frigates, or any warships to keep it shut. Threats, drones, missiles, and risk were enough to halt traffic and make insurance costs spiral out of control. 

Even more alarmingly, Iran has realised that it perhaps does not need a nuclear weapon when it can control the Strait of Hormuz. We were perhaps just weeks away from an all-out global economic depression, the threat of which forced Donald Trump to return urgently to the negotiating table.

The global backlash against the United States for launching a disastrous, reckless war of choice and then trying to impose the costs on the entire world, will not be forgotten. The entire global south views the US as a dangerous rogue state, whose desperation to save its hegemony poses a direct threat to everyone.

China once again had to do absolutely nothing and let Washington embarrass itself in front of the entire world. China looks like the responsible actor that stands for a stable international order of commerce and development, the US looks like an out-of-control rogue state that stands for war and destruction. 

Russia gained massive windfalls from higher energy prices, and Washington's actions once again proved to the global south that what Moscow had been saying about US hegemony was right all along. 

This wasn't the US' victory moment; it was the US' Suez moment. US hegemony will accelerate in its decline from here on out. More countries of the world will increasingly turn to China, BRICS will consolidate, and its economic rise is unstoppable.

Iran did not collapse, and forced the most powerful nation in the history of the world to the negotiating table. A catastrophic embarrassment, stemming from a needless war of choice.