Ben Rhodes

Hey, we've got a coin too.

And it's not, you know, it just, for history, it's kind of what the Egyptians did with the Suez Canal after they fought a war in which they wanted to nationalize the Suez Canal and they're still getting paid.

Yes, but guess what?

So is invading and bombing another country.

Wait, what?

When you dispense of international law, your adversaries also stop paying attention to international law.

Interesting.

And I think this is important too, though, because the Iranians have now demonstrated that their ability to control that strait is kind of like a nuclear deterrent, right?

Is America likely to attack them again?

I don't think so after how this one went.

And so we've given them also not just additional revenue sources, we've actually given them in some ways greater security because they've demonstrated a deterrent that they have through that strait.

Well, Oman is closer, right?

But it's also just the fact that their stakeholders in the American-led petrodollar security in global economy, right?

So they're playing by the rules.

And they also don't have the kind of military strength.

Exactly.

Because this is another thing, a geopolitical thing that is happening, which is that the Chinese have wanted to do trades not in the dollar to weaken our control of the global economy.

The Iranians want that.

The Russians want that.

And increasingly, other countries are like, huh.