• Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    55 minutes ago

    What’s next: America blowing up its own bases in the Middle East? Killing its own soldiers? Crashing its own planes?

  • GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    5 hours ago

    I think he’s just pissed off that Iran is letting Chinese ships thorough. So now the question is whether Trump is stupid and deranged enough to attack any Chinese ships that ignore this illegal blockade, which would probably kick off World War 3 in earnest.

  • finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Is it my imagination, or is that stretch of water and the water surrounding it not US territory, thus making what he wants to do (interdict) kind of … piracy?

  • ryper@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    “Effective immediately, the ​United States Navy, the Finest in ​the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING ‌any ⁠and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” said Trump, who is strongly opposed to the ​idea of ​Iran charging ⁠ships a toll to pass through the strait.

    “I have also ​instructed our Navy to seek and ​interdict ⁠every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one ⁠who ​pays an illegal toll ​will have safe passage on the high seas,” he ​said.

    Pretty sure what Trump is opposed to is him not getting a cut of the toll.

    • Andy@slrpnk.net
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      6 hours ago

      This is truly an April Fools-level move.

      The US is closing the Strait? The generals couldn’t open it, so Hegseth said, ‘Okay! I’ve got it! We declare that WE’RE closing it, NOT THEM!’

      How … is this better?

      • stickyprimer@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Iran was allowing some ships through. The logic is that if it’s closed to the US it must be closed to everyone (it was not before).

        Do I think this is a good move? No. Do I think Trump and Hegseth have three brain cells between them? No.

        But it also isn’t hard to understand their angle here. It’s not better for anyone. But the idea is to make it worse for Iran than the previous phase, where they had control of the strait.

        • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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          26 minutes ago

          Gonna be a hard sell to the rest of the world who is largely able to negotiate passage with Iran. US navy is gonna hijack ships enroute from the strait to China?

          • stickyprimer@lemmy.world
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            23 minutes ago

            I agree. A US blockade of Hormuz was actually always a reserve strategy to put a chokehold on China if they invade Taiwan. Now we’re just playing that card for no fucking reason at all. This administration is dumb as fuck and I can’t believe there isn’t even anyone in the military who can stop them. I guess that’s what we see with Hegseth’s long line of dismissals.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Once again the whole world has to suffer because of Trump’s insatiable ego and greed, and his bottomless stupidity. May he be gone soon.

    • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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      9 hours ago

      He did previously say that as the “winners” of the war, the US was entitled to collect that toll, basically. So, yeah, I think you’re spot on.

    • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      No one ⁠who ​pays an illegal toll ​will have safe passage on the high seas

      Does that mean they are gonna attack anyone that paid? Also when he starts charging does that mean they will destroy any ships right after they pay?

    • SilverCode@lemmy.ml
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      7 hours ago

      Illegal toll? Who’s laws govern the strait that make these tolls illegal?

      • yesman@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Lot’s of people avoid using the word retard. But that’s hard on some people because the loss of that word can decimate their whole vocabulary.

        I support your freedom of expression; language is hard, and some people need verbal prognostics to make their point. It’s rude to pick on people just because of a diminished capacity.

        • athatet@lemmy.zip
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          4 hours ago

          My vocab is diminished because I don’t use slurs? That sounds like an incredible trade off. I think I will keep it up.

        • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          By calling out the decline of Trumps cognitive abilities, I offended subset of people who should in my view never ever be called a “retard”?

          I do apologise to anyone who still wants to identify as one.

            • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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              55 minutes ago

              i’m torn. we shame them away from using this one, they’ll just move onto the next. it’s not the meaning behind the word that they like, it’s the fact that it’s a slur. hence the euphemism treadmill.

              • athatet@lemmy.zip
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                46 minutes ago

                That still doesn’t mean that we need to use it.

                Also, we absolutely should shame these people. Let them move onto the next one. We will shame them for that too. Bigots don’t get to have things.

    • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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      8 hours ago

      One of his many word salads involved an offer to split the tolls between us and Iran, so yeah, that’s what he wants. The dummy simply didn’t realize access to the strait was so valuable until after the bombs started dropping.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      2 hours ago

      I’m still trying to work out if this one’s a late April Fool…

      Imagine working for the man. You just hear crazy shit day in, day out, and have to quickly adapt and run with it, otherwise he’ll find another mug who will.

    • magnue@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Yeah but if they say it this way it sounds like they’re in control of the situation

      • Eril@feddit.org
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        6 hours ago

        It’s so in a few days he can “re-open” the strait again, declaring that everything is back to normal: “No president ever opened as many straits as I did”

    • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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      5 hours ago

      In Hegseth’s voice… Why can’t you idiots understand how clear our, sorry I mean our great President’s, mission has always been. We needed to start this excursion, because Iran was about to extort the world through a blockade. It’s extortion when Iran does it. We are liberating the world when we extort, uhm … uhm… liberate them from Iranian extortion. To pre-empt some of the news you will hear later this week. Iran was already threatening the region with opening Trump branded golf courses on its soil, and so America needed to make sure our friends in the region did so before hand. Radical left wing media not understanding that we won the war because 10 more Trump golf courses are opening in Gulf and 0 in Iran, just don’t understand that freedom isn’t free.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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      9 hours ago

      The idea being to choke off Iran’s ability to use it at all. This kills their remaining income stream and also incents the Chinese and others who thought they had a workaround (the tolls) to instead put pressure on Iran.

      • NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works
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        6 hours ago

        But that only works if the US is willing to start attacking unarmed oil tankers, which will do no favors for their international support.

        If they hadn’t alienated all their allies, they could build an embargo until the straits were opened but that ship had sailed.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        China is both extremely well supplied with Oil, and aggressively weaning itself off of oil. It’s everyone else in Asia who are now pressured to get closer to China from this. Asia cutting US off from Chips, and selling to China instead, until US leaves the Gulf region, is the most effective action. Diplomatically, asserting that the US/Israel illegal war is the primary source of fuel and helium shortages needed to make chips, industry needs to focus on serving friendly country needs first.

  • gdog05@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    There are a lot of people who want this level of destabilization and interruption of goods and energy security. Techno feudalists want this. Trump needs to feel powerful, so someone like Peter Theil who is trying to bring about Armageddon could easily convince Trump that this move makes him look powerful instead of a target by the rest of the world.

  • Akh@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    He cant blockade something controlled by someone else who already shut it.