There are military campaigns that end in negotiated settlements and there are military campaigns that end with elements of the administration reconsidering whether to topple the government they have been bombing instead, and the Financial Times reported Monday that “elements of the Trump administration are once again flirting with Plan A, which is to topple the Iranian regime,” which is the sentence that arrives after a 21-day ceasefire, two dead US service members in Jordan, gas back above $4 a gallon, and nine consecutive days of US airstrikes.
The national average price of regular gasoline climbed back above $4 a gallon on Monday, per AAA, reaching $4.003, up from $3.872 a week ago and $3.141 a year ago, which is the specific arithmetic of a conflict whose economic costs are arriving at the pump in the way that the administration’s energy advisors presumably modeled and the administration’s communications team is not currently featuring. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has “largely come to a standstill” according to Fox News’s live blog updated today, which handles approximately 20 percent of the world’s traded oil and which the administration’s 20 percent transit fee has not resolved, partly because the Joint Maritime Information Centre simultaneously says no fee is required and partly because the strait is a conflict zone.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is meeting Trump at the White House today, per Fox News’s confirmed live blog, which is the visit of a leader whose country sits directly on the Lebanese-Israeli border and whose military and political situation is directly affected by US-Iran hostilities. Aoun’s visit arrives two days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio departed for the Philippines to attend ASEAN foreign ministers’ meetings, which is the scheduling of an administration managing a war, a ceasefire’s aftermath, a potential regime change discussion, and multiple simultaneous diplomatic tracks across the Middle East and Southeast Asia from the same week.
Rubio called the deaths of the two US service members in Jordan “heartbreaking” before departing for Manila. CENTCOM confirmed overnight that it intercepted “nearly all” Iranian missiles targeting the Jordan airbase but “one leaked through, hit the wrong place.” The two service members are dead. The plan to topple the Iranian government is reportedly back under discussion.
When the administration that signed a 60-day roadmap 34 days ago is reconsidering whether to topple the government it signed the roadmap with, and gas is back above $4, what exactly was the roadmap?
Sources
Fox News live: US Iran war July 21
Fox News: Trump weighs Iran war expansion
HuffPost: Another Tanker Attacked In Strait Of Hormuz As U.S. Strikes Iran For 10th Consecutive Night
