Brilliant video. I sggest everyone who wants to get a handle on...

Brilliant video. I sggest everyone who wants to get a handle on the middle east situation , take a listen.  Here is the shortened transcript from it - will be good to have here as a reference point..
@Jrowl1, pay attention to para 2 re printing money.

3:15 What does America say it wants?
It says it wants to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. It says it wants to bring democracy to Iran. It says it wants peace and stability in the Middle East.  

Now, what does America actually want?
America wants to maintain control over the global oil supply because the global oil supply is the foundation of the petro dollar system. And the petrod dollar system is the foundation of American financial power. It is what allows America to print money and run huge deficits without its economy collapsing. Without the petro dollar, America cannot afford its military. Without its military, it cannot maintain its empire.

Now, what does Iran want? Iran wants to survive. Iran has been under
American sanctions for decades. America has been trying to regime change Iran since 1979. Iran has watched what happened to Iraq when America invaded.It watched Libya get destroyed. It watched Syria get destabilized. Iran knows that if it does not fight back, it
will be destroyed.  Iran wants to be recognized as a legitimate regional power. It wants to end the sanctions permanently. It wants to control the straight of Hormuz, not just
now during the war, but permanently as a tool of economic leverage. And it wants its allies, Yemen, Hezbollah, Iraq to be protected as part of any settlement.

Now, what does Israel want? Israel wants to replace America as the dominant power in the Middle East. Israel is auditioning to be the new empire. It is showing the global elite, the finance class, the asset managers,  the people who actually run the global system that it is willing to fight, that it has the unity, the determination, the strategic intelligence to be the muscle of the global system when America is no longer able to do the job.

And what do the Gulf states want? Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, they want to survive, too. But they are weak. They cannot fight on their own. And right now they are trapped between two powers that are much stronger than them. Their strategy
is to stay as close to whoever wins as possible and they will flip very quickly to the winning side when they see which way things are going.

6:08  America is winning the air war but cannot win the ground war.. America has the most advanced fighter jets, the most advanced bombers,the most advanced targeting systems. And in the opening phase of this war, America did serious damage to Iran.  But you cannot win a war from the air alone.This is one of the most wellestablished facts in all of military history. You can bomb a country endlessly and it will not surrender if the population is determined and the leadership is resilient. The Americans bombed North Vietnam for years. Vietnam did not surrender. The British bombed Germany for years in World War II. Germany did not surrender from the air. It surrendered when Soviet and American ground troops were physically inside its territory.

Structural fact 1
To achieve its goal of regime change in Iran, it eventually has to send ground troops. There is no other option. But a ground invasion of Iran is, as I have said many times, potentially catastrophic. Iran is four times the size of Iraq. It has a population of 90 million people. It is mountainous. And Iran has been preparing for a groundinvasion for 25 years. . Underground bases in mountain ranges, decentralized drone factories, weapon systems specifically designed to destroy helicopters, armored vehicles, and infantry. This is not something America can simply bomb its way through.

Structural fact 2
the cost  is unsustainable for America. We have discussed this before, but let me make it very simple. Iran fires a drone that costs $50,000. America fires a missile to shoot it down that costs $3 to $10 million. For every Iranian drone, America spends 60 - 200 times more money trying to stop it. Iran fires these drones in swarms, hundreds at a time. . In fact, we already know that America is racing to accomplish its military objectives before it runs out of interceptors. Interceptor missiles take years to produce. Iran's drone factories, on the other hand, are dispersed across the country, hidden in basement and warehouses, and can be rebuilt quickly, even after strikes.

Structural fact 3
Economic pressure is real and growing every day. The Strait of Hormuz carries 20% of the world's oil supply. Iran is effectively controlling it right now.  This is an economic weapon pointed directly at the global economy. And now Yemen has entered the war and is threatening the Red Sea, which carries another 12 to 15% of global trade. Think about what happens when both of these choke points are disrupted at the same time. Oil goes to $150, $200 a barrel. Fertilizer becomes scarce. Food prices rise globally, and a global recession begins.

This creates political pressure inside America that no president can resist because ordinary Americans are already asking, "Why are we fighting this war?Why are gas prices going up? Why is my grocery bill going up?" And the answer is this war.

Structural fact 4
American political will is fragile and declining. Only about 40% of Americans support this war right now. That number will go down, not up, as casualties increase and economic pain grows. America is not a nation that accepts casualties.  Every time America gets into a long, expensive, painful war with no clear victory in sight, the political will collapses. And with it,
the ability to fund and sustain the war collapses too. Iran knows this. Iran has studied American psychology very carefully. For 20 years, Iran has been analyzing American political behavior.
It knows that the American public has a pain threshold and Iran's entire strategy is built around pushing America past that threshold.

Iran will not negotiate with America directly right now. Not because Iran is being
stubborn, because  Every time Iran has negotiated with America in the past, America has broken the agreement. The nuclear deal, the JCPOA, America signed it and then Trump tore it up. America has shown again and again that it cannot be trusted to honor agreements with Iran.

How long will this take?
Empires move slowly. America has enormous resources. It can drag this on for years if it chooses to, but the economic pressure is real and it is building every day. My best estimate is that within 12 to 24 months, America will be looking seriously for an exit.And within 2 to 3 years, the broad outlines of the new Middle Eastern order will be clear.

America is leaving the Middle East. Iran is rising. The petro dollar is dying.