So, it's a couple weeks later. If there's a plan to open the strait of Hormuz, why ain't it open yet, and why is the President chimping out at Europeans for not opening it for him? Presumably they thought of dusting off General Dempsey to go find this super secret plan.
The US Iran‑Contra scandal: When money & hypocrisy override foreign policy
The Iran-Contra affair, also known as Irangate, was a major political scandal that rocked the United States during the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s.
▪️The US secretly sold arms to Iran, breaking embargo, and funneled the cash to Contra anti-communist militias in Nicaragua to fund bloodshed.
▪️ The operation flouted Congress and US law, exposing a tangled web of lies, secret deals, and international intrigue.
▪️ It blew open in late 1986, when a plane crash in Nicaragua revealed the scandal, triggering explosive media coverage and investigations.
💣 Why the scandal exploded
The scandal sprang from two tangled US foreign policy crises.
1️⃣ Hostages vs Hypocrisy: In 1979, Americans were held hostage in Lebanon by Iranian-backed militias.
▪️ Despite labelling Iran a ‘state sponsor of terror’, the Reagan administration covertly bypassed Congress and flouted its own laws amid Middle East chaos.
▪️Between 1985 and 1986, the US sold over 1,500 TOW anti-tank missiles, Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, and spare parts to Iran, generating around $48 million in profit.
▪️Sales were routed through third parties, including private arms dealers such as Manuchehr Ghorbanifar, an Iranian exile, and Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi businessman.
▪️US officials secretly met with Iranian representatives in Europe, including in Frankfurt, and Tehran.
2️⃣ Contras vs. Congress: Washington backed Nicaragua’s Contras against the leftist Sandinistas, seen as Soviet proxies, while dodging the Boland Amendment (1982–1984), which forbade direct US funding.
▪️Off-the-books schemes fueled by anti-communist zeal and Cold War posturing became the norm.
▪️Around $16–18 million from the Iran arms profits was diverted to the Contras.
▪️ unds were laundered through Swiss bank accounts and shell companies to undermine the Sandinista government and counter perceived Soviet influence in Latin America.
▪️The Contras bought weapons such as AK-47s and mortars and conducted guerrilla warfare.
▪️ The CIA managed covert logistics, flying unmarked planes to supply Iran and secretly funnel weapons, training, and supplies to the Contras.
⚰️ Aftershock
▪️ The revelations triggered a political firestorm. In 1986–1987, Congress and the Tower Commission investigated, culminating in televised hearings nationwide.
▪️ Reagan’s approval rating plummeted from 67% to 46%, though he avoided impeachment by claiming limited knowledge.
▪️ Key figures such as Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and National Security Advisor John Poindexter were convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to Congress, but most convictions were overturned on appeal or pardoned by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
▪️ The scandal severely damaged US credibility abroad, exposing hypocrisy in arms control and human rights policies, and fuelling anti-American sentiment across the Middle East and Latin America.
Quite the fantasy. A note from history: wars often are conducted with no rational plan for winning. Notable examples are Napoleon attacking Russia - and in WW2, Japan’s attack on the US and Germany on Russia.
Worse, these wars are often begun after careful planning and expensive war games shows that they’ll fail:
* In 1941 the games of the Japanese government’s Total War Institute (love the name) predicted they’d lose a war against the USA.
{It works in reverse, too. In 1934 the US military ran the GJE4 exercise that showed Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to a carrier attack - and how to do it. Japan followed the script, and won.}
* In 1962-1964 the Pentagon ran the Sigma wargames played by high-level US officials. These showed that North Vietnam could withstand even large US forces. This confirmed analysis by an Army Survey team done in 1954. The rest was history.
* In 2002, DoD staged the “most elaborate war game the U.S. military has ever held …to validate the modern, joint-service war-fighting concepts.” It pit the US vs a foe like Iran. But the Opposing Force won, sinking our carriers. So DoD refloated them and ordered Marine General Ripper to lose. Iran might be less cooperative. This explains why our carriers remain 300+ kilometers away from Iran, greatly diminishing their strike capabilities. And suggests the outcome of any attempts to occupy parts of Iran.
Notes
1/ See the amazing story of the 2002 Millennium Challenge war game:
2/ See the war games that predicted Japan’s successful attack on Pearl Harbor. Billy Mitchell also predicted this in 1924, as did George Patton in 1937. Admiral Ernest King ran a small exercise in 1938, with similar results.
Interesting argument - that the US president/military is not ignorant but merely incompetent.
The risk of closing the straight might have been part of the American war plan, but if so we have to say that the US military has failed at this point.
On that begging for help crap rolling around. It was a test. America doesn't need Europe. He wanted to know who his allies really were. And recently he announced that likely US is leaving NATO with it's billions of dollars, and soon because NATO stood by and did nothing.
So, it's a couple weeks later. If there's a plan to open the strait of Hormuz, why ain't it open yet, and why is the President chimping out at Europeans for not opening it for him? Presumably they thought of dusting off General Dempsey to go find this super secret plan.
Thanks for this article. The vast majority of trash being written out there is the usual TDS mixed in with catastrophizing.
Long overdue that someone wrote this. You did it very well.
Friend, don’t use AI to write this much
Agreed. Let AI guide you and give you background, but many people see the tell tale AI fingerprints and just tune out. Trust your own voice!
Sure…..it’s all going according to the plan. Higher energy prices, resource shortages, critical infrastructure damage, no regime change…..
How can seeing 3 carrier groups in one AO be a suprise to anyone but the intellectually compromised?
Here we go again!
The US Iran‑Contra scandal: When money & hypocrisy override foreign policy
The Iran-Contra affair, also known as Irangate, was a major political scandal that rocked the United States during the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s.
▪️The US secretly sold arms to Iran, breaking embargo, and funneled the cash to Contra anti-communist militias in Nicaragua to fund bloodshed.
▪️ The operation flouted Congress and US law, exposing a tangled web of lies, secret deals, and international intrigue.
▪️ It blew open in late 1986, when a plane crash in Nicaragua revealed the scandal, triggering explosive media coverage and investigations.
💣 Why the scandal exploded
The scandal sprang from two tangled US foreign policy crises.
1️⃣ Hostages vs Hypocrisy: In 1979, Americans were held hostage in Lebanon by Iranian-backed militias.
▪️ Despite labelling Iran a ‘state sponsor of terror’, the Reagan administration covertly bypassed Congress and flouted its own laws amid Middle East chaos.
▪️Between 1985 and 1986, the US sold over 1,500 TOW anti-tank missiles, Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, and spare parts to Iran, generating around $48 million in profit.
▪️Sales were routed through third parties, including private arms dealers such as Manuchehr Ghorbanifar, an Iranian exile, and Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi businessman.
▪️US officials secretly met with Iranian representatives in Europe, including in Frankfurt, and Tehran.
2️⃣ Contras vs. Congress: Washington backed Nicaragua’s Contras against the leftist Sandinistas, seen as Soviet proxies, while dodging the Boland Amendment (1982–1984), which forbade direct US funding.
▪️Off-the-books schemes fueled by anti-communist zeal and Cold War posturing became the norm.
▪️Around $16–18 million from the Iran arms profits was diverted to the Contras.
▪️ unds were laundered through Swiss bank accounts and shell companies to undermine the Sandinista government and counter perceived Soviet influence in Latin America.
▪️The Contras bought weapons such as AK-47s and mortars and conducted guerrilla warfare.
▪️ The CIA managed covert logistics, flying unmarked planes to supply Iran and secretly funnel weapons, training, and supplies to the Contras.
⚰️ Aftershock
▪️ The revelations triggered a political firestorm. In 1986–1987, Congress and the Tower Commission investigated, culminating in televised hearings nationwide.
▪️ Reagan’s approval rating plummeted from 67% to 46%, though he avoided impeachment by claiming limited knowledge.
▪️ Key figures such as Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and National Security Advisor John Poindexter were convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to Congress, but most convictions were overturned on appeal or pardoned by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
▪️ The scandal severely damaged US credibility abroad, exposing hypocrisy in arms control and human rights policies, and fuelling anti-American sentiment across the Middle East and Latin America.
Of course it was considered in the plan. No military personnel is that uninformed.
Quite the fantasy. A note from history: wars often are conducted with no rational plan for winning. Notable examples are Napoleon attacking Russia - and in WW2, Japan’s attack on the US and Germany on Russia.
Worse, these wars are often begun after careful planning and expensive war games shows that they’ll fail:
* In 1941 the games of the Japanese government’s Total War Institute (love the name) predicted they’d lose a war against the USA.
{It works in reverse, too. In 1934 the US military ran the GJE4 exercise that showed Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to a carrier attack - and how to do it. Japan followed the script, and won.}
* In 1962-1964 the Pentagon ran the Sigma wargames played by high-level US officials. These showed that North Vietnam could withstand even large US forces. This confirmed analysis by an Army Survey team done in 1954. The rest was history.
* In 2002, DoD staged the “most elaborate war game the U.S. military has ever held …to validate the modern, joint-service war-fighting concepts.” It pit the US vs a foe like Iran. But the Opposing Force won, sinking our carriers. So DoD refloated them and ordered Marine General Ripper to lose. Iran might be less cooperative. This explains why our carriers remain 300+ kilometers away from Iran, greatly diminishing their strike capabilities. And suggests the outcome of any attempts to occupy parts of Iran.
Notes
1/ See the amazing story of the 2002 Millennium Challenge war game:
https://fabiusmaximus.com/2008/01/14/millennium-challenge/
2/ See the war games that predicted Japan’s successful attack on Pearl Harbor. Billy Mitchell also predicted this in 1924, as did George Patton in 1937. Admiral Ernest King ran a small exercise in 1938, with similar results.
https://www.beachesofnormandy.com/articles/Predicting_Pearl_Harbor/?id=a904d60b73
Here is a more detailed analysis. From Reddit, but it looks accurate.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/k5okm8/why_did_the_1932_and_1938_military_exercises/
Very well written, I fear the doom and gloomers swallowing the propaganda could read this and still not get it.
OUR OWNERS HAVE A PLAN!!
FIGHT. GOY. FIGHT.
Interesting argument - that the US president/military is not ignorant but merely incompetent.
The risk of closing the straight might have been part of the American war plan, but if so we have to say that the US military has failed at this point.
I not only "like" your work - I search for it daily, Alex!! BRAVISSIMO!
On that begging for help crap rolling around. It was a test. America doesn't need Europe. He wanted to know who his allies really were. And recently he announced that likely US is leaving NATO with it's billions of dollars, and soon because NATO stood by and did nothing.
50% will pound the narrative now and 25% forever.
I agree with all your points, just pointing out the constraints of reality.
Btw: Weren’t you the same guy who claimed last year that “Iranian nuclear capabilities had been reduced to rubble”
Lol
Lmao