Trump expresses hope that China and other nations will send warships to the Strait of Hormuz
John Leake
Napoleon
famously remarked, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a
mistake.” I was reminded of this maxim when I saw the following
communiqué that President Trump just published on his Truth Social
account.
Does President Trump know that Iran is permitting oil tankers destined for China to pass through the Strait of Hormuz?
Note
that every military planner who considered what Iran would do if
attacked by the U.S. has predicted it would close the Strait of Hormuz
as an economic lever against the United States.
Trump writes of the “attempted closure” and the need to “keep the Strait open and safe” as though the Straight is not, in fact, closed.
He then expresses hope that China will send naval assets to the Strait to help the United States “to keep it open and safe”?
This is the same president who, on October 21, threatened to levy a 155% tariff against China.
Trump
increasingly reminds me of the Emperor Caligula, who in 39 AD—according
to Suetonius— built a gigantic floating pontoon bridge using hundreds
of ships across the Bay of Baiae (part of the Bay of Naples) and rode
his horse across it. He performed this feat to disprove a prophecy that
he had “no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across
the Bay of Naples.”
Organizing the flotilla to perform this stunt
cost an astronomical sum and resulted in famine in Rome because it was
necessary to requisition ships supplying grain to the city.
As President Truman put it, “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”