His core argument cuts against the bravado.
Every time Washington strikes, he says, Iran answers one rung higher, and each of those sorties burns aviation fuel the U.S. no longer has to spare.
The same crude that makes jet fuel makes diesel, and his warning is blunt: keep flying these missions and you eventually choose between fueling fighter jets, keeping civil aviation running, and trucking food to supermarkets.
Not enough barrels for all three.
On the ship strikes, he read the Oman angle the way few do.
Iran and Oman signed a framework on June 24 for joint administration of the strait.
The vessels getting hit were routed down the Omani corridor by the UK maritime body, which Larry calls an outside push to sabotage that deal.
So in his telling Iran isn't violating the MOU, it's enforcing the protocol it negotiated.
On Iran's retaliation strikes, the official story was that Iran's reply to the US strikes was a handful of drones, all intercepted, no real damage.
Larry told me the opposite, straight from someone plugged in close: the Fifth Fleet at Bahrain got hit again, and their setup is in tatters.
His bottom line stayed where it's been: the US needs this deal more than Iran does, and every strike proves it.
@NewSonof
