Posted on 09/15/2026 1:58:11 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
These days one reads fewer stories proclaiming the turning of the tide in the Russia-Ukraine war. There are also fewer tweets from Donald Trump threatening Iran with imminent destruction.
Now that the noise has receded, it is a good time to listen. I am not hearing of a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive. What I am hearing instead is the thud of Russian jackboots marching deeper into the parts of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that Vladimir Putin does not yet control.
Meanwhile, in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, the Houthis have taken control of the strategic port city of Mokha. The city lies just to the north of the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. So far, the Houthis have not been able to interdict shipping through the Strait, as Iran did in the Strait of Hormuz. But since capturing Mokha they have also seized Perim Island, in the middle of Bab el-Mandeb, putting them in a far stronger position to threaten passing ships. If they succeed in closing the Strait, Iran and its allies would control the main maritime bottlenecks of the Middle East.
That spells economic peril for the West. Before the war, the vast majority of oil produced in the Arabian Peninsula traveled through the straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb. Right now, about 400,000 barrels of Saudi Arabian oil flow through Bab el-Mandeb per day, only a small fraction of production. And after the Houthis captured Mokha, the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, is back to around $100 per barrel. This is not the short, sharp oil-price shock that the markets had anticipated...
(Excerpt) Read more at unherd.com ...
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Strategic reserves were sold to Europe, with the promise they will repay at a premium. We are will soon be on full government meltdown. We need a younger man in office, a Geriatric patient like Trump or Biden is unacceptable.
6 more years and Russia will win their two day operation, lol
If Unherd had any solutions, I haven’t heard them. Unred.
Really stupid, uneducated article.
Typical loser wailing and propaganda!
Iran is toast, and the Houthis are an infected boil that has made the mistake of drawing “medical” attention... It will be fully debrided and removed...
LOL. Dunno about Ukraine, but the lamentations about Iran reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNzkIgGpsAw
How so?
Trump told the only nation that could stop iran with our help to back off, MISTAKE!
Trump told Saudi Arabia to step in cause we can’t have JEWS tking out iran. As we have ALWAYS SEEN the saudis are cowards thru and thru no matter the amount of cutting edge military armaments you can supply them with! MISTAKE!
And now the republicans are destroyed come november cause this ship can’t be righted by the midterms.
This was not what I voted for!
This is b/c we don’t go scorched earth.
We don’t need oil from the Saudis. This is not our war anymore. They made their “defense alliance” with Pakistan and Turkey. Let THEM take care of the Houthis all by themselves.
This is simply an editorial based on very little fact. I won’t click on his “click this and accept all our cookies” button to read the article because he is just selling anti war positons. If you clicked on it, then enjoy all the bas he sends your way. Secondly, what you posted is based on little actual facts, but is a position editorial. It is a common technique by Modern Media to sell their positions. I suggest that you watch “InsideRussia” on YouTube, which is produced by an actual Russian dissident, and he has a way different viewpoint. Also, the tide will turn in the Houthi conflict and will be resolved soon. the Saudis are now partnering with Israel to get rid of them, and they will open up both the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Bab al-Mandab. So, go to sites like this one and the Chatham House that demand that you accept their crappy cookies that are hired position outfits, and you get what you pay for. If you wait a few days, it might seem much different because WE don’t know crap about what is really happening behind the scenes.
If you break it, you own it. Trump broke it.
The petrodollar becomes worthless if we allow global oil sales in other currencies. Those with savings want a strong petrodollar. Saudi Arabia and gulf states have kept oil sales in dollars because we provide arms and protections.
Sure, Wolfgang. Whatever.
To the contrary there is plenty of evidence in his article, and you admit you won't read it! Then you offer me a single random podcaster, but you can find podcasters selling any viewpoint easily enough. What matters is the evidence.
The Houthis have been frustrating and defeating the Saudis for a decade and more now, so it's going to take more than empty promises that "this time is different." The Saudis have a very expensive air force but little competence when it comes to using it. They seem to have adopted the Western way of war - drop lots of bombs and hope that is somehow sufficient (and it rarely is). Despite the usual Western happy-talk, I expect an increasingly desperate effort by Trump and others under Iranian pressure to find a face-saving solution before gas prices really shoot skyward. The Israelis seem to have wisely stepped as far into the background as possible, seeing how Trump has thoroughly mired himself.
Check back in a few days and we will see how it turned out.
The Russian missile and drone attacks are taking a toll on Ukraine's economy but it's unclear if the are affecting war production or delivery of military assistance. Plus the worse the economy is, the more men a freed up for military service. People here tend to forget that the US strategic bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan were not definitive until the last of Germany's Fischer-Tropf plants were destroyed cutting off fuel and in Japan's case, until the atomic bombs were used. While the accuracy of Russia's drones and missiles can cause more damage than an equivalent payload of WWII bombs due to accuracy, they still have a very small payload compared to bombers. As long as people have food and water, they won't flee. Even the Germans didn't flee until the Red Army approached.
Above all, people underestimate both the Ukrainian's resilience and resourcefulness. My impression from having visited after 2014 is that many would rather die and surrender only scorched earth to the Russians, and given how the Russians would likely slaughter and imprison the entire political class and officer corps while subjecting the rest to rapine and looting, that is hardly an irrational choice (contrary to Mendel's wormtongued advice).
As far as Iran goes, it's too soon to tell, although the US blockade seems to be having some effect the problem is Iran's reserves of weaponry are deep and they know how to cause the most pain to Trump by jacking up oil prices using the Houthis and attacks on Gulf oil facilities. They won't get any relief from Trump, but may be counting on the Democrats to deliver victory just like the North Vietnamese. Trump's biggest failure so far is to fail to take on the criminals in the Democratic Party as he should have, and that failure may cost him and the country dearly.
So, if we switched results with Iran and the US was in the same condition as Iran after starting the war, the US would be winning in the author’s mind?
😁
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