New levels of incompetence

Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted yesterday that the OAFPOTUS administration has achieved an unprecedentedly stupid outcome through its unprovoked war against Iran:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday warned European allies that Iran could set up a “tolling system” in the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran ends.

“I did describe to our allies, however, that immediately after this thing ends, and we’re done with our objectives, the immediate challenge we’re going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “Not only is this illegal, it’s unacceptable, it’s dangerous for the world. And it’s important that the world have a plan to confront it.”

He added that the U.S. “is prepared to be a part of that plan” but not lead it, and that allies had a lot of “buy-in to that concept” if Iran carries out such a plan.

Josh Marshall smacks his forehead in disbelief:

The key here is that the U.S. seems to expect the war to end without any agreement simply not to block the Strait of Hormuz or exact tolls through it, which means claiming sovereignty over it as a kind of inland waterway. There’s really no way to describe this other than conceding that Iran will emerge from the war massively strengthened. We’ve come a long, long way from regime change and unconditional surrender. The other way to view it is that Rubio concedes that Iran will come out of the war massively strengthened and that it’s up to Europe and perhaps some countries in Asia to fix it.

Needless to say, there’s a lot here that requires explanation. The EU powers seem to be saying they’ll be part of some post war plan to keep the Strait open. But only after the conflict is over. Point being they don’t want to be operating in any war zone. But wait! … if Iran is claiming sovereignty over the Strait and charging tolls, you don’t necessarily change that without at least threatening to go to war again. And that’s clearly not what the EU powers are signing off on.

Iran closing the Strait was such an obvious strategy that no previous US president has even attempted a major military action against them.

But because the grift is still so good, the Republican Party still refuses to remove the demented toddler from office, no matter how much damage he does to their own interests. MAGA wants to burn the world to the ground and rule the ashes.