The Dull Gleam Monody, 41st Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Helios): In an interview with the NY Times' Ezra Klein, American journalist, political commentator, and author Fareed Zakaria offered his evaluation of the Stable Genius' unauthorized and immoral war with Iran.

He points out that when the war began, Iran's nuclear facilities had already been “completely and totally obliterated,” at least according to the Stable Genius. While one should never takes the SG at his word, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission also confirmed that Iran’s nuclear program has been destroyed and couldn't be restarted as long as they didn’t get access to nuclear materials, which were being denied to them. That was the situation at the start of the war. 

After the U.S and Israel's bombing was over, Iran had lost its military and its navy, but by the end of the hostilities, it had gained is a far more effective weapon than nuclear arms: it had realized and shown the world that it can destroy the global economy by simply blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Iran now seems poised to not only hold much of the world hostage with its strategic hold on the Strait, but it’s also going to monetize that stranglehold, gaining $70 to $90 billion of revenue every year, about twice as much as it made selling oil. Those payments will be felt by Americans at the gas pump, and also weakens the American petrodollar because payments for passage through the Strait are being made in crypto or in yuan, the Chinese currency.

Iran has also strengthened Putin because Russian is now making something on the order of $4 billion to $5 billion more per month because of the increased price of oil, which will probably stay elevated for a while.

In addition, it has also nearly destroyed the Western alliance. A frustrated and desperate Stable Genius, when he realized he wasn’t getting his way, decided to blame his failures on America’s European allies, as if had they somehow joined in, it would have made any difference. As Zakaria points out, when you have a bad strategy with unclear and shifting goals, it doesn’t really matter how many people you have cheering you on from the sidelines.

The benefits to the U.S. of the war are close to zero. Zakaria sees the war as merely a willful, reckless destruction of lives, of massive amounts of American military hardware, and of America’s global reputation.

It was a stupid, lousy strategy that has ended up with the United States much weaker than it was before, he concludes.