The retaliation came right on schedule.
CENTCOM announced strikes on Iran tonight in answer to the missile attack on the Jordan base, and Iranian media reported explosions rolling across the south, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Qeshm, the same coastal map America has hit for months.
Larry Johnson, thirty years across CIA and State, calls it Groundhog Day: hitting a ball of mercury with a hammer, scattering the problem instead of destroying it.
The bigger story broke hours earlier at the negotiating table.
Oman, backed by the Gulf states, formally offered Iran a 50/50 joint management plan for the strait with voluntary contributions modeled on the Strait of Malacca.
Iran rejected it as unreasonable, and Reuters revealed what Tehran actually wants: sole control over everything sailing in, shared control over what sails out.
Washington's response was just as absolute, no tolls and no fees, EVER.
Larry's decode is that nobody should be surprised, since the original MOU named exactly one country responsible for passage through the strait, and Iran has simply never left that position.
So both doors closed on the same day, and the military door leads nowhere better.
The remaining Patriot interceptors split across three theaters leave roughly 140 shots for this one by his math, and the new plan for two more weeks of heavy strikes repeats the exact plan that already failed.
"This is Einstein's definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome."
Bombs by night, rejections by day.
The war has found its rhythm, and neither side is dancing toward the exit.
@NewSonof
