Fareed Zakaria

It now seems poised to not simply be able to hold the Gulf states and much of the world hostage because of that pivotal position it has, but it's now going to monetize that, presumably giving it $90 billion of revenue every year, which is, by the way, about twice as much as it makes selling oil.

It has weakened the Gulf states, which now sit in the shadow of this tension that they have to worry about and navigate.

It has brought China into the Gulf, we learned, because the Chinese had to get the Iranians to agree to this.

It has weakened the dollar because these payments that are being made through the Strait of Hormuz are now being made in crypto or in yuan, China's currency.

It has strengthened Russia because Russia is now making something on the order of four to five billion dollars extra per month because of the price of oil, which will probably stay elevated for a while.

And it's almost wrecked the Western alliance because

Trump, in his frustration and desperation when he realized he wasn't getting his way, has decided to blame all of it on all America's allies as if they had somehow joined in.

This would have made any difference.

When you have a bad strategy with unclear and shifting goals, it doesn't really matter how many people you have cheering for you on the side.

But you take all of that and you say those are the costs.

And the benefit is, as far as I can tell, is...

quite close to zero in the sense that Iran already had a nuclear program that was largely defunct.

Israel was already far more powerful than Iran and could easily defend itself.

I see it as an absolute exercise in willful, reckless destruction.

A destruction of lives, destruction of massive amounts of American military hardware, destruction of America's reputation.

But I also think what the president of the United States says matters.

And you can't just excuse something on the argument, oh, it's a clever negotiating strategy.

First of all, it was a stupid, lousy negotiating strategy that has ended up with the United States much weaker than it was.

But even if it were, I don't think that the ends justify the means in situations like this.

And certainly not when the things you say