The US Wants Another Big War

Recently by Robert Wenzel: Dear Americans, We Are Surrounded

      NYT reports:

The Obama administration is relying on a secret channel of communication to warn Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a “red line” that would provoke an American response, according to United States government officials.

The officials declined to describe the unusual contact between the two governments, and whether there had been an Iranian reply. Senior Obama administration officials have said publicly that Iran would cross a “red line” if it made good on recent threats to close the strait, a strategically crucial waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, where 16 million barrels of oil – about a fifth of the world’s daily oil trade – flow through every day.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this past weekend that the United States would “take action and reopen the strait,” which could be accomplished only by military means, including minesweepers, warship escorts and potentially airstrikes.

This is completely amazing. At the same time that the U.S. is warning Iran, the U.S. is doing everything in its power to prevent anyone from buying oil from Iran. It’s a damn financial block of the strait by the U.S, that is really pushing Iran into a corner.

Reprinted with permission from Economic Policy Journal.

2012 Economic Policy Journal