Flurry Of Navy Minesweepers Appear To Be Heading Toward The Middle East
A surge in minesweeper movements comes as the U.S. says an operation to clear Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz is taking shape.
The first stage of grief is denial.So it's not a Pyrrhic victroy for Iran? A total victory instead? Yeah, makes sense.

There is no way that any kind of reserve inflow can help overcome the disruption caused by the supply drop due to the Iran war. The gap is too large at over 20 MBPD.
Netanyahu at a cabinet meeting: "I spoke yesterday with Vice President J.D. Vance. He called me from his plane on his way back from Islamabad. He reported to me in detail, as this administration does every day, about the development of the negotiations. In this case, the explosion in the negotiations. The explosion came from the American side, which could not tolerate Iran's blatant violation of the agreement to enter the negotiations. The agreement was that they would cease fire, and the Iranians would immediately open the gates. They did not do that. The Americans could not accept that. He also made it clear to me that the main issue on the agenda for President Trump and the United States is the removal of all enriched material, and ensuring that there is no more enrichment in the coming years, and that could be in decades, no enrichment within Iran. That is their focus, and of course it is also important to us."
He is theoretically right though. Victories in wars / battles are defined by whether the party achieved its political / military goals defined before the conflict or not. If it does not, it is a failure. Just like the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine was a failure. They failed to install a puppet govt in Ukraine or secure their neutrality, which were their initial war aims. After that failure, they recalibrated their goals, but the initial invasion still remains a failure. The latter operation is still in progress.
He is wrong, people are making up their own version of what the goals were and weren't. The goal may well have just been to punish Iran for all their recent BS, which includes giving Hamas - the perpetrator of the Oct 2023 attacks - $350m/year, as well as known affiliations with Houthis and Hezbollah, which it used to aggravate the situation before launching BM salvos at Israel itself. This was achieved. Side goals were setting back Iran's military and nuclear progress, which has also been achieved.He is theoretically right though. Victories in wars / battles are defined by whether the party achieved its political / military goals defined before the conflict or not. If it does not, it is a failure. Just like the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine was a failure. They failed to install a puppet govt in Ukraine or secure their neutrality, which were their initial war aims. After that failure, they recalibrated their goals, but the initial invasion still remains a failure. The latter operation is still in progress.
Similarly, despite inflicting significant damages on Iranian military and political leadership, the Islamic regime and IRGC are still in power. Their nuclear facilities may have been damaged but if the war stops in its current phase, Iran will again will be able to build the nuclear weapons. The US has failed to achieve its initial war aims yet and I don't think it can do so without putting boots on the ground. So far its operation remains a political failure despite being a military success. This is despite not counting the geopolitical goodwill and influence lost by the US. However, if it can achieve its goals, it will be a success.
PS : These things don't apply to Pakistanis though. They will start a war to capture Kashmir, completely fail in that and end up defending Lahore and then declare that defence of Lahore was a war victory (1965).
He is wrong, people are making up their own version of what the goals were and weren't. The goal may well have just been to punish Iran for all their recent BS, which includes giving Hamas - the perpetrator of the Oct 2023 attacks - $350m/year, as well as known affiliations with Houthis and Hezbollah, which it used to aggravate the situation before launching BM salvos at Israel itself. This was achieved. Side goals were setting back Iran's military and nuclear progress, which has also been achieved.
Nice to have goals would have been regime collapse, which may or may not still happen. People are deciding that because this one goal hasn't happened yet that it's a complete failure but several important members of the original regime and their replacements are dead and a blockade is currently being enforced, which deprives Iran of $435m/day (half of their $300bn GDP) on top of the estimated $270bn worth of damage already done.
That's not a win. People can and will find solutions for their Hormuz crap, even if they don't yet back down or get invaded. They will not find a solution to their problem because there isn't one. Currently ships not from Iran are leaving Hormuz, but Iranian ships are not, they've lost, some people are just in denial, like Monty Python's Black Knight.

I never voted for Starmer but I see his position, Trump told European NATO members to take full reponsibility for Ukraine war costs so he could concentrate elsewhere, so they did, and he knows this. So whilst Starmer is a twat, he is not wrong on this, TME is up to Trump and Gulf allies. Europe is our reponsibility, TME is his (and Gulf allies).Hello Sir
You should Read Trump's Truth Social latest post about UK PM Starmer![]()