Mike Whitney • September 3, 2026

Looks Like Anglin Was Right, After All

Donald Trump does not want to kill millions of Iranian civilians. But Trump has a gun to his head and time is running out. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is getting dangerously low, long-term interest rates are edging up, and a global oil shock is just around the corner. What is Trump going to do?

For all practical purposes, the war is lost. What was supposed to be a surgical regime change operation followed by massive public demonstrations, has become an agonizingly long period of adjustment during which the leader of the “world’s only superpower” acclimates to the new reality that America has ended its hegemony in a war it didn’t need to fight with an enemy that meant us no harm.

The issue that is never covered in the media is the simple fact that the US military bases that are spread across the Gulf and Middle East are the cornerstone of American primacy. As more of those bases are obliterated by Iran’s precision hypersonic ballistic missiles, US regional dominance diminishes leaving a power vacuum that has been filled by Tehran. This is the new order in the region and unless Trump can figure out a way to turn back the clock, there will be no reason to pretend that the US remains the regional guarantor of security. And if the US can no longer protect the many oil-producing countries from threats, then there is no need to denominate oil sales in dollars or recycle those revenues into US Treasuries. In short, Trump’s folly in Iran has precipitated the most devastating geopolitical shift in the last century which represents the greatest strategic defeat in America’s 250 year-long history. Nothing else comes close.

Now that we understand the stakes, we should be able to grasp why Trump’s threats to use nukes on Iran should not be dismissed as empty bluster. Simply put, Trump is running out of runway and must decide quickly what course of action to take. But –as we all know– he has already exhausted his repertoire of conventional weapons which have not persuaded Iran to meet his demands or to make concessions. So what can he do?

Yes, what can he do? That is the question that should raise the blood pressure of every rational American watching this farce unfold, because realistically Trump only has two options from which to choose: He can either withdraw and accept defeat or use nuclear weapons. There is no third option.

Continue reading at link below:

https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/looks-like-anglin-was-right-after-all/