Mike Whitney – The Unz Review Sept 12, 2026
We’re at the end of the line. After seven months of unprovoked warfare, the situation in the Middle East has ballooned into a full-blown crisis. Overnight, Saudi oil exports have fallen to zero. ZERO! Let that sink in for a minute. The “world’s largest oil producer” is presently exporting NO oil. Persian Gulf terminals are effectively shut down due to the war with Iran while the East-West pipeline—the main overland bypass that moves 4 to 5 million barrels per day to the Red Sea terminal at Yanbu—was blown up at nine different locations on Thursday (by Iraqi drones) and is no longer operable. That means no Saudi oil is going to market for the first time in history. Does that sound like a catastrophe to you? Does that sound like something that’s going to require an immediate response from Trump and Co?
But, so far, Trump’s only response has been the meandering statement he made at a Friday press conference. Here’s what he said:
“The Houthis called us. They don’t want to fight with us. They let us know they don’t want to fight with us. They don’t want us to go after them. They would much prefer not having us involved, and they are letting most ships go through. There’s just one country they’re not too happy with. (link)
This is nonsense. Trump hasn’t spoken to the Houthis nor does he know what they want. The president’s comments just shows that Trump’s advisors were caught off-guard and haven’t settled on a response yet. But what’s clear to everyone watching this farce is that it’s all being orchestrated by Iran. It was Iran’s allies in Iraq that struck the east-west pipeline just as the “Iran-backed” Houthis who seized Mocha and Perim Island. Here’s a recap:
An unexpected blitz on the coastal city of Mocha has tightened the Houthis grip on one of the world’s most critical waterways. The surprise offensive which sent Saudi Arabian Forces into a chaotic retreat, was followed just hours later by the seizure of a strategic island at the southern mouth of the Red Sea. (Perim Island) In less than 48 hours, Yemen’s Ansar Allah has reinforced its control of a vital shipping lane sending oil prices skyrocketing while opening a second front in the war against the United States and Israel. There’s no doubt that we have reached a tipping point in the seven-month long conflict that’s seen US military bases across the Gulf reduced to rubble while the Iranian military has asserted an iron grip on the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic pincer move by the Houthis increases the likelihood that the US will be driven from Middle East and that Iran will emerge as the guarantor of regional security. We are seeing changes to the geopolitical landscape that take place once in a century.
Perim Island sits at the heart of the Bab Al-Mandeb, the narrow straight at the southern entrance of the Red Sea. The location strengthens the Houthis control over the shipping lanes where 10 percent of global oil transits daily. In order to avoid the Strait of Hormuz which has been closed by Iranian Forces, the Saudis have sent the bulk of their oil through a 1,200 kilometer east-west pipeline to a port at Yanbu on the Red Sea. The pipeline –which moves 4 to 5 million barrels a day to market– is essential to Saudi Arabia’s flagging economy. On Thursday, the pipeline was attacked by Iraqi drones at nine different locations immediately stopping the flow of oil while triggering panic in Riyad and Washington. In short, “the oil map is getting squeezed from both ends; Hormuz in the east and Red Sea access in the west.”
On Friday, Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman made a desperate appeal to Donald Trump for military assistance that was promptly turned down. The refusal was widely reported in the media but does not accurately reflect the level of US cooperation. At present, the the US has “More than 100 US military advisers in Saudi Arabia assisting Riyadh with intelligence and targeting support for its renewed war in Yemen. (CNN) ….an unnamed US official, put the number of US troops assisting in the effort at 200 and said they were part of a new joint task force that was formed in recent weeks as the war in Yemen began to escalate.”
It’s worth pointing out, however, that “The war was reignited by July 13 Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, an attack that was approved by President Trump, according to a report from Axios. The strikes were launched to prevent a plane from landing in Sanaa that took off from Iran, which was carrying a Yemeni delegation that attended the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei….
US intelligence and other supporters also supported the brutal Saudi-led war in Yemen from 2015 to 2022.” (which killed tens of thousands of civilians and left the country in a shambles. Antiwar.com
So, the US is largely responsible for the crisis today; that much is clear.
On Friday, September 11, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following statement:
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has asked the Saudis to hold off on a military response while he tries to find the people responsible. But while the issue remains unresolved, the underlying message is clear; Iran and its regional allies are now determined to stop the flow of oil from the Middle East in order to put pressure on the US to end the war. In short, they have the global economy by the windpipe and are gradually tightening their grip to force Trump to meet his obligations under the Memorandum of Understanding, the deal that is supposed to end the hostilities and restore the region to peace.
Events are moving so fast, we can’t be certain that Trump even understands what’s going on. The situation is no longer containable. The lights are blinking red. We are facing a different set of contingencies and a myriad of different scenarios. The only thing that is certain is that America has no future in the Middle East. When the dust finally settles, the bases will be boarded up, the fleet will be gone, and Old Glory will be tucked into a packing crate headed for the USA.
The Houthis now occupy the entire western coast of Yemen, and their forces serve as a vice-grip for Iran to maintain control over 30 percent of global oil. This is obviously a synchronized effort by highly-motivated, battle-hardened militants who are implementing a far-reaching strategy aimed at forcing an American retreat from the region followed by the imposition of a new multilateral security architecture. We do not think that Trump’s obsession with bombing random targets from the sky has any chance of succeeding. From the very onset, Trump has reflexively opted for destructive violence over any purposeful use of military power for a political endstate. His inability to think strategically is pushing the country towards its most humiliating military defeat followed by years of economic retrenchment.
https://www.renegadetribune.com/migrants-placed-in-tiny-british-village-will-out-number-locals-by-10-to-1/
“His inability to think strategically is pushing the country towards its most humiliating military defeat followed by years of economic retrenchment.”
Well we know that the Dumpster is not paid to think strategically. He’s not paid the think at all. Just follow ordures and then try to sell them as populism. Nah, it’s got nothing to do with the Dump’s “inability to think strategically”.
So then the question becomes whether the Zionist Oligarchy bankrolling and backing the Dumpster are unable to think strategically. Or, if it all seems too stupid to be stupid, is it part of a ‘grand strategy’ to destroy the Western world altogether? After all, whilst they manifestly loath Iranians, Palestinians, Turks, Lebbos, and anyone else of semitic appearance, they appear to loath white Europeans even more.
Incredibly ungrateful bastards since it is the long-suffering white European who has provided them, and continues to provide them, with their untold wealth and privilege. Even as they flood European lands with third-world interlopers, grifters, rape-artists, and cut-throats.
Let us not forget the profound utterances of the most revered and mercifully late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994)…
“The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression: “Let us differentiate.” Thus, we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather, we have a case of “let us differentiate” between totally different species. This is what needs to be said about the body: the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world. … The difference of the inner quality, however, is so great that the bodies should be considered as completely different species.” – google AI
MAKE THE BEST OUT OF IT !
Zero oil, huh? So look at it on the bright side, things can only get better. But on a serious note this may also be the end of a cruel economic system where some become billionaires and a trillonaire, while others have to queue for food which has to be donated by people with a conscience. We may end up with worse in the end, fascism, but it may be a chance to develop something better.
And now what may be worse for the US, Sunni Muslims are beginning to side with Shia. After centuries of division, which I believe began over support for a son of Mohammed and his Koran interpretation, or support for his granddaughter and her interpretation, the west has united them.
More lies and rubbish from USrael.
Iraqi drones attacking pipe lines? Sounds like a pretext to move US forces back en masse onto Iraqi turf with other USrael-supportive nations of the West who say their oil has been cut off. Where else would their ground assault against Iran begin?
People who are “hopeful” this war will come to an end are really deluded about what is really going on. There is no real division between the top-down globalist centralization plans and the USrael ones. It is the same beast running everything, even the entire creation of the PRC, and the trade which has looted us for the off-shore (out of our reach) wealth behind all of the scheming. They are now creating a crisis for privation to draw us both into an even greater war while at the same time cranking up the demand to end all wars for more powers from our nations going to their internationalist club. In their multipolar model they need their “chosen” people to be set up to own and control West Asia.
In similar news from the Caribbean, a commenter elsewhere said there have been survivors from US strikes on these boats – whose lawyer was assassinated. Someone else said he was killed in the street in broad daylight. If this is the case and I don’t doubt it is, the Trump regime really is a mafia.
It all seems fake and contrived like the USA and Israel want the oil shut off and want to collapse the world economy the US Dollar and of course the Petrodollar which is supposed to be all about defending Saudi Arabia with the US Military. That Houthis offensive has been going on for a week and the US Military and Israeli IDF have not done anything to even try to slow it done let alone stop it. They are all pretending that they cannot defeat no more than 100,000 Houthis in flipflops and driving an army of pickup trucks! Across hundreds of miles of open desert without cover from enemy air strikes. The old ISIS in 2014 con job. The US Military has an aircraft carrier battle group two days away and not one single airstrike. Not one IDF or US Airforce strike either. The US Military has at least forty thousand soldiers in the Middle East including elements of the 82nd Airbourne Division and many special forces that could have been rushed in. Where are the US Marines? Where the hell is the US Military’s rapid deployment force that is supposed to be able to deploy to any point on Earth in under twenty- four hours? They could have greatly strengthened the Saudis before their defeat became a route. The Saudi Military of 245,000 soldiers has an eighty-three billion dollar a year budget and is trained in US Military tactics and has nothing but the very best most modern and most expensive US weapons. All kinds of top dollar mercenaries to. All controlled not so secretly by US Military brass and over watched by US Military ISR. Why in the hell was that island not defended and just given up without a fight? Why were US Special Forces or US Marines or even Saudi soldiers not sent there to defend the island? Do the Houthis have a navy capable of amphibious operations to capture islands all of a sudden? Are we supposed to pretend that we all believe that US Military ISR did not see the Houthis gathering for the offensive for weeks? Saudi Arabia’s military seems to have been given some form of retreat or stand down order. Cowardness incompetence and surprise are not a very good cover story for something like this. Oh, and what did Trump do when he heard about all this? He got on Air Force One and flew to Ireland to play golf! Yes, you can tell he and his take this all very seriously! It has to be some kind of a set up!
The stop in flow of middle east oil was taken into account as a possibility, an unwanted outcome or even as a goal by Trump&Co (or their handlers) from the beginning.
That’s why he assaulted Venezuela, for back-up oil.
Trump may play the clown (or be one), but here we can see a cleverly planned strategy.
Don’t blow away your oil barrels without having spares.
Sneerson, I see no inner quality in you + your ilk !
or am I blind not to see your qualities ? hundreds
of wise men of hindu history had qualities your
tribe cannot reach even with legions of your
Satan JHWH .
@MM
before the big food chaos happens it would be
better Europa starts a big repatriation of all
superfluous foreign welfare recipients + finish
of the EU . Nato would only be useful in helping
in this matter . Zelensky talk with Putin for your
second isramafiahell (Khasaria) .