Israel’s attack on Iran’s infrastructure and Iran’s counter-attack spike oil prices.
Expect a retest of the highs. Nothing has been fixed. Trump has no good solutions.
Background
WSJ: Israel struck at the crown jewel of Iran’s energy industry on Wednesday—the giant South Pars gas field that Iran shares with Qatar and is by far the largest in the world. Iran retaliated with two attacks on a major gas hub in Qatar just across the Gulf and a missile barrage fired at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with debris landing near a refinery.
LNG Facilities Could Take Years to Repair
Natural Gas Intelligence reports QatarEnergy Says Damage at LNG Facilities Could Take Years to Repair, Upending Supply Outlook
QatarEnergy warned Thursday it would take up to five years to repair damage to its LNG facilities after two separate missile attacks by Iran hit its Ras Laffan Industrial City. [Rest Paywalled]
Iranian Foreign Minister Warns of ‘Zero Restraint’
The Wall Street Journal reports Iranian Foreign Minister Warns of ‘Zero Restraint’ if Energy Attacked Again
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi joined the country’s president in warning that his nation would show no restraint if its energy infrastructure was attacked again following the Israeli strike on facilities linked to South Pars, the world’s biggest gas field.
“ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again,” Araghchi said on social media Thursday. “Any end to this war must address damage to our civilian sites.” Iran retaliated to Israel’s attack on South Pars by launching two waves of attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan, the site of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant as well as attacks on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Araghchi said Iran’s response employed a “FRACTION of our power.” He said Iran showed restraint out of respect for requests to deescalate.
On Wednesday, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure “could have uncontrollable consequences.”
Israel Refinery Hit
Bear in mind Israel started this latest escalation.
US in Catch-22
CNBC Video U.S. is in a ‘Catch-22’, every action it takes is likely to drive up oil prices: Analyst
Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners warns that tighter oil supply could spark hoarding, pushing prices higher and setting the stage for demand destruction if the conflict drags on.
Pickering: “If we wind up with boots on the ground, that means this conflict isn’t ending quickly. The markets are expecting something to change for the better in the very near term.”
“There is no question the US is feeling the heat from triple-digit oil prices. The worst solution is to stop without fixing the problem.”
“If the US stops without securing the strait, that means the strait is at risk on on on-going basis. But if you fix the strait, it’s going to take more time. So, you are in a bit of a catch-22 here where every action you take is likely to result in continued pressure on the crude markets.”
Trump on Fact-Finding Mission to Identify Lessons
WSJ: Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has sent military officers to the Middle East to identify and quickly recommend lessons that can be applied during the ongoing conflict.
The officers were dispatched to the region by the Joint Staff’s directorate for force development, Caine said. He didn’t specify the lessons learned so far.
Five Key Lessons
- Don’t start stupid wars on “feelings” and the advice of Jared Kushner and other clowns.
- Don’t think every war is a cake-walk.
- Don’t enter wars with Israel or other countries when the goals are different.
- Don’t enter wars without consulting allies.
- Know your enemies and don’t underestimate them.
There’s no need for a fact-finding mission. Save the money and read this post instead.
That said, don’t expect Trump to learn a damn thing from this. Do expect Trump to further blame Biden and Obama.
Finally, don’t believe a damn thing this administration says about anything. It’s all lies.
Related Posts
March 16, 2026: The World’s Biggest Liar Accuses the Media of Lies and Treason
“Whatever he does, he accuses everyone else of doing,” said Senator Ted Cruz.
March 17, 2026: Delusional Trump Now Says “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
After begging for help, and saying many nations offered help, guess what.
March 19, 2026: Trump Warns Israel and Iran Following Major War Escalation
Comment: Anyone still having issues?
From WordPress …
Hi Mish
We have identified the problem with comment voting errors and have patched the wpDiscuz plugin. Things are now working as expected on your site.
For now, we will not be auto-updating the wpDiscuz plugin until we have confirmed that they have fixed the issue on their end. There is nothing you have to do here, other than please refrain from running any updates for the wpDiscuz plugin. We will monitor things on our end and update the plugin when appropriate.
seems ok!
downvoting works!
Why would fixing a problem get a down vote?
Trolls are amazing here.
Because you criticize the Cult Leader.
Each downvote is an angry tear.
Just making sure the down vote is working too…sheez (lolz)
Yup, it works!
Yes, saw it start working again yesterday. Modern age of software development: deploy a new version without proper testing. Wait for users to bitch that “its broke”.
I still got the “Too many requests. Please slow down” message after upvoting.
works fine again since yesterday. very strange bug. site getting too popular?
I only had that issue on one thread. I think it was a sufficiently sensitive topic that for some reason since other threads worked I figured comment section had been muted to avoid too much discord in comments. *shrug* thanks for fixing it quickly!
Yes. A catch 22. And a lesson in contradictions.
Trump cannot find a way to prevent Iran from controlling which ships are allowed to transit the strait of Hormuz. So 1-2 mbpd of Iranian oil continue to move through the strait and go to China. But the other 10-12 mbpd from other countries are still trapped in the Persian Gulf.
The US does not stop Iranian oil because any oil being shipped will help keep prices lower. (Which rewards the enemy you are attacking.)
Trump has also removed sanctions on Russian oil to keep prices down. (Which rewards another enemy.)
And now Bessent is talking about removing sanctions on Iranian oil so other countries in Asia can buy it besides China.
All this is to try to keep oil prices down. Oil prices that have spiked since Trump started this war.
Add in the coming release of oil from global SPRs.
Trump has also paused the Jones act for a couple of months, hoping this will help as well. Even though it won’t.
All these things will help for a few days or perhaps a few weeks.
But the reality is that global demand will still exceed global supply as long as the war continues. And all these temporary measures will soon run out.
Which means energy prices will keep seeing pressure to the upside. Until Iran is willing to back down from impeding ships and destroying infrastructure.
I had open-minded views of Trump, thinking that the second term would be much better based on the experiences learned. But, like so many (most?) people, it’s been the other way with the important things. So unfortunate not just for US citizens but for the whole world in general. The best thing to do now is to try figure out how best to protect ourselves individually from the consequences of the rash action and stupidities that Trump had started, encouraged or failed to stop.
Thanks for the comment
The best thing to do is get rid of thr guy. Not figure out how to survive what he’s doing. My suggestions haven’t changed. See reprint below.
Are the Democrats ready to Impeach and Convict now? No. Even if they know that all the primaryed Republicans will vote with them and then we will be rid of Trump.
They want total control of all three branches of Government and Trump is giving it to them every day. The more that Trump screws up, the more powerful they are, and will become. Waiting until after the mid-terms will be too late to save America but it will give the “Power” to the Dems, that is all they want.
So, do the cowardly Republicans Impeach Trump and dare the Democrats to vote against them? I don’t think the Republicans have the guts, but it looks like that is the only way we will be able to save ourselves.
10/15/25
I don’t think you know how impeachment works from your comments. Democrats (by themselves) can’t impeach or convict as they have no majority in either house. They can put forth a privileged motion in the House but it can be tabled. They can’t even guarantee a real trial in the Senate if it miraculously passed.
It’s almost as if the president should have to get the explicit approval of Congress before starting a war. What a concept.
Trumps plan to force assistance from Europe etc. is to start blowing up oil and gas infrastructure in Iran and to let Iran blow up a few in other neighboring middle eastern countries as Europe and Asia have far more to lose than the US as a result of a lack of oil infrastructure in the Middle East. He will now get the assistance he needs to clear the straight and the value of “his” Venezuelan assets will become more valuable and their development will become more financially feasible not to mention the money to be made out of US oil exports.
LOL. Good one!
More importantly, nobody is looking at the evidence of him raping and trafficking children that is right there for anyone to see on the DOJ website.
British journalist Steve Sweeney has been targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
https://x.com/declassifiedUK/status/2034605144164176335
A Brown University study found that Israel had killed more journalists in Gaza since October 2023 than “the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined.”
Pretty sure you can add The War On Iraq to that list as well.
Which in turn raises the question – if Israel were so moral, as we regularly are assured, why the need to kill so many journalists? You’d think Israel would want journalists to get the truth out.
Similarly, what’s up with threatening ICC judges and the like? I mean, since we are regularly told about what a force for good Israel is, why can’t they act like something other than thugs?
The first one? We’re bombing Iraq too now.
Please bear in mind:
Although Trump is displacing the blame to Israel, as he did for the attack of Teheran’s fuel infrastructure, for needing to attack Iran in the first place to preempt Israel’s retaliatory preemption [Rubio], and earlier for the attack on Doha last year to murder the Palestinian negotiating team, there are also reports that Trump was informed in advance.
The whole displacement of blame on Israel is standard playbook plausible deniability.
Don’t believe a word of it ! Just PR.
They have told us there is a unified target deck.
How can Israeli & US planes operate in the same area without deconfliction and communication?
Technically, Israel can do nothing without active hands-on US agency:
BREAKING: F-35 hit….weeeeeee
UPDATE: Iran apologizes for hitting F-35, “we didn’t know it was invisible”
The plane is invisible, but the pilot – Wonder Woman – isn’t. Especially them hooters.
Excellent!
The more Iran destroys infrastructure in other countries besides Israel the more those other Middle East countries will want Iran’s military utterly destroyed and a regime change so it can’t happen again.
There’s a reason there are US bases in so many of them. Hint: It’s not because they love America, it’s because they fear Iran and exactly this scenario.
Sooner or later other countries will have to get involved to finish this thing to prevent oil going parabolic. I’m talking Europe, Asia etc. Iran continues to act like a rabid dog attacking everything rather than the US or Israel.
So Trump and Nuttyahoo kick a hornet’s nest and now you want European and Asian countries to clean up the mess. I would support sending MAGA and members of ICE to go fight, but I imagine a bunch of low T keyboard warriors wouldn’t stand much of a chance.
What other Gulf countries want is meaningless. Iran is doing exactly what they told us before the war they were going to do. Other countries aren’t going to do shit – nor should they. They didn’t start this disaster or agree to go along with it.
This may help you think things through…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Middle_Eastern_countries_by_population
Iran is the second most populous country in that region behind Egypt and followed by Turkey.
Population = manufacturing and industrial capacity.
Most of the other countries are “princes” and “princesses” that import labor from India and Africa to do all the hard work. I suspect those that can have left the country.
Like blaming a rape victim for fighting back.
Iraq voted in 2020 to remove all us bases by 2026 and the US has left Ain Al Asad air base in January.
maybe they dont fear Iran so much.
the pampered princelings maybe
It’s actually the opposite. They cannot wait for that type of resolution (which would likely require an invasion) because they would be left in ruins and the leadership would be deposed.
They want stability.
=catch22
tried to read book probably 2 dozen times! never finished
i might give a ride again.
I quite Atlas Shrugged after one page – the writing was so horseshit. No wonder Paul Ryan liked it.
Yeah, she wasn’t a writer, lol
Anti-Defamation League Notice: The amount of anti-Jewish sentiment in the US is likely to soon skyrocket and remain elevated – reinforced every time a blue collar worker goes to the pump. Time to put on the brakes …
I don’t think Netanyahu cares.
Like i said in previous post. Bibi attacked the infrastructure to escalate the conflict. To draw in other nations that dissed trump when asked to volunteer. It also reduces the chance of peace. .
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the US under Trump’s leadership starts a war we can’t afford as the national debt reaches $39 trillion according to Debt to the Penny website. Our country is fiscally failing via our own stupid decisions.
Agent Krasnov is the second coming of Mikhail Gorbachev, desttoyer of empires.
Trump’s ‘Four-To-Five Week’ Iran ‘Excursion’ Now Appears Open-EndedFriday marks the end of three weeks of attacks, which in the first days would have meant Trump’s unilateral war was almost over. Not anymore.
MAGA is a total failure now —-so how about the real truth which is …MAPAA ?
Making Americans Poorer Again and Again …..with unending price increases now.
Ma and Pa and the kids are now at the Food Bank as they go broke– In the USA.
I’m having “real issues” with the Administration. Does that count?!
Serious, and good point about we can’t believe anything they say. How could we wth graft taken like the $1/2 Billion from Saudis 2 days before taking office. Literally starting off 180 degrees from integrity. I’m thinking he’s just so damn used to a lifetime of lying that no lies phase him.
Go back and read US policy papers, think tanks, etc for 25+ years for strategic geopolitical planning. Seems every administration has/is following the scripts for survival of the unipolar system.
We don’t have money for American citizens, 9% of which have now dropped health insurance, but there’s always plenty of money for war with Pete Hickseth asking for $200 billion more.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/19/aca-enrollees-uninsured.html
So if 9% stop paying premiums, who’s picking up the losses?
Undertakers and embalmers, for the most part.
And lots of those long-term ‘investments’ are going to get rattled.
With today’s plunge, silver is now down 40+% since its recent 2026 peak – for all those silver lovers here. Ouch!
Trump’s war policies affect us all, high and low.
The big price plunge in silver from the record peak on 29 Jan was a plunge from $114.43 to $78.53 on 30 Jan. The reasons for this crash are being debated. There has been some drop between the start of the war and now, but there are a lot of forces acting on (manipulating?) the price of silver that have had larger effects than the war.
The Little Red Hen – the United States (protector of international trade) decides that we might ban oil exports and the rest of the other animals decide they want the oil(bread) and then decide that they maybe want to help in the Hormuz. Amazing how simple dhildrens stories apply to real life.
Little Red Hen? More like the Little Red Heifer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_heifer
Amazing how grown adults function at a preschool level when dealing with real-world issues. Trump baked a shit cake and no one wants a bite.
Lesson six: Don’t elect unstable geniuses.
kamala might be a genius but she hide that very good by using world ;s salad
This is starting to look like a potential for complete destruction of Iran’s economic, military and nuclear capability as the end game in order to satisfy Trump but doing so will not change the most important issue, that being the hatred for the great Satan, America and Israel. Even if accomplished, the radicals will regroup, rebuild and repeat. How many in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria etc. love the Great Satan countries after being attacked by the same?
the bombings will continue until morale improves
From the US/Israeli perspective, that would be a feature, not a bug.
Well more and more Iranian leaders are being killed in these attacks as time goes on.
They are going to run out of top officials sooner or later. Sure new people can replace them but they won’t be as knowledgeable or competent. More importantly, since leaders are being targeted and killed who want’s the job.
Most Iranians are not radicals any more than most American’s are MAGA. Once the leaders go, regime change can proceed.
None of them want to be ruled by Trumpstien. It’s the Kackles vs Pedo choice X 1000
No, there will be an endless supply of new leaders, each new one more radical and hostile than the one before as long as the Israëli’s and Americans keep bombing historical sites and infrastructure. The regime is so embedded they will not be dislodged by bombing alone. Afghanistan showed they are unlikely to be dislodged even by Americas full military might. And Ukraine has shown how to fight against an enemy that has overwhelming Numbers. Rest assured that Iran has been taking notes.
The guy is embarrassing.
Israel already attacked an Iranian desalination plant. Iran has not yet attacked any desalination plants.
AI Overview:
Israel operates five major desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast that provide roughly 65%–85% of its drinking water. These plants—Ashkelon, Palmachim, Hadera, Sorek, and Ashdod—use reverse osmosis. A sixth plant is under development, with further plants planned to meet increasing demand.
Iran is aware that half of the population under Israeli control is Arab.
Keep hostages or finish the genocide… tough choice for Israel.
Perhaps it is more of a tactical targetting approach by Iran. Iran knows most of its missiles/drones aren’t getting through. If only a couple are going to make it, it would seem to make sense to target things like oil/gas facilites which will go “BOOM!!!” from a successful hit rather than a desalinization plant which will go “pffft”. Israel doesn’t have that constraint.
WSJ: Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has sent military officers to the Middle East to identify and quickly recommend lessons that can be applied during the ongoing conflict.
The officers were dispatched to the region by the Joint Staff’s directorate for force development, Caine said. He didn’t specify the lessons learned so far.
=======
ahahah ! ahhaah!! ahaha!!!!!!! ahahah!!!!! aahahah!!!! ahahah!!!!!!!!
as if IT IS FIRST WAR IN MIDDLE EAST!
====
PURE COMEDY!
“We’ve found that drones are playing an important role in this conflict.”
=drones
you mean sh11it that can fly w/ explosives?
who knew! thanks god military geniuses are onto it
i feel safer already
Your 5 key lessons are right on. If anything too mild. It is such a knife in the back to have a candidate run as an America First peace candidate, indeed get elected very much on that basis, and be the exact OPPOSITE! A lying, war-mongering murderer, who doesn’t clean out the Swamp but grows it.
When your choices for President are so profoundly dishonest, does “learning key lessons” matter?
It’s almost as if Putin successfully regime changed the US, isn’t it?
King Chaos the Shit Talker isn’t helping anyone, not even himself.
The lesson should be: character matters even more than policy.
“The lesson should be: character matters even more than policy.”
Any system can work tolerably well, to the extent it is run by non-sociopaths.
The campaign should be:
Short of that, you need a revolution to change the regime.
I would argue that we are ruled by a corrupt oligarchic cancerous organism. Not one American in 1000 knows 6 individuals as profoundly dishonest as Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, Trump, and Biden. Yet that’s what emerges at the top from the putrid cancer that is our “system.”
I don’t have an answer. Revolutions are violent and unpredictable with a very low probability of success. I’m just resigned to trying to stay out of the cancer’s way.
We are in a catch-22 of the Fourth Turning.
Putin must be laughing all the way to the BANK . . . Europeans already hat in hand . .
unfortn. ruble against $ and yuan is down, so higher prices soon!
de-dollarisation my ass!
Europeans are rethinking their decision not to get involved when asked.
It’s Europe’s problem WAY more than it’s the US’s problem and they are in deep doodoo.
Tell that to trump at the mid terms.
“Iran retaliated to Israel’s attack on South Pars by launching two waves of attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan, the site of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant as well as attacks on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.”
Iranian officials publicized that if Israel doesn’t stop attacking its energy infrastructure then Iran will have no restraint in attacking the infrastructure of other countries? This must be what it feels like to be in an airplane at 30k feet (9.1 km) and see all the engines flame out.
Trump is out of his mind. Have you seen his facial pictures lately? He’s drunk on power, a mad man. I see the public not doing anything. No protests like the 1960’s. Sorry guys, texting doesn’t work. I looked into any protest marches in my city and none. We are allowing these maniacs to control us.
Yesterday it was “I can take Cuba. I can free it or I can take it.” WTAF?
Why Is There No Anti-War Movement in the US?
https://www.laborpolitics.com/p/why-is-there-no-anti-war-movement
Check out the No Kings website.
There will be a nationwide protest on Sat., Mar.28. There will def be anti-war protesting there.
What good did protests in the 60’s do?
Jeff Childers has a very different take. Given the micro-targeting of IRGC/Basiji actors at the individual level – I think the fat lady is clearing her throat.
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/whose-war-thursday-march-19-2026?utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ch1ue&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
“It’s not a crisis, It’s a negotiating position.”
Spoken like a true neocon nutcase
Nonsense: this article assumes chaos in Iran is useful — in reality that’s the worst outcome: no partner, no control of Hormuz, and a nuclear problem that gets less visible, not more.
And the idea that alliances are best managed by coercing your allies is just bizarre.
Classic Team America BS.
Civil war in the best interest of Israel.
They are attacking each other instead of Israel.
Iran played Trump like a puppet on strings
Assume you mean that Israel played Trump like a puppet.
Question:
or
or
Civil war in Iran is inevitable, but it is in the interest of both Israel and US (and the rest of the world if the Mullah’s lose IMHO).
Iran is trying to play a game by throwing missiles out everywhere but nobody is taking the bait. For the life of me, I can’t fathom how this is Iran playing Trump?
To me it looks like desperate endgame stuff.
=Jeff Childers has a very different take. Given the micro-targeting of IRGC/Basiji
who the f1uck is Jeff Childers?
who GIVES A FU11CK WHAT HE THINKS about 5000+ years nation w/ 90 mil, and 2d most gas/oil stocks in world.
=I think the fat lady is clearing her throat.
to think you need to have BRAINS!
OBV. you dont have ones.
otherwise you would have stated you own thoughts , not some fat old fu1ck living in mom;s basement who watches cnn-abc!
=====
AND I BET $100 HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW farsi language . neither do you !
am I right buddy?
alx
This article was complete horseshit. The US will never control the straight of hormuz. There’s not enough money or time (or manpower), and the US economy is entering a free fall.
The US has already won whether Iran stands, falls, or the entire middle east is turned into glass.
Controlling the straight is irrelevant.
Have a look at this to understand what is at play here.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenroberts/2024/08/16/2024-us-oil-imports-from-middle-east-hit-new-record-low/
This is from 2 years ago. The situation is only more US centric now.
Trump offered a stick to Europe and they slapped him in the face. That will sting Trump for a little while, but the EU may feel the pain for a very long time.
If Trump picks up his ball and goes home, the EU will find itself in a vary precarious situation with its newly found “friends” that don’t have its best interest at heart.
Like a true Q drop. “It’s all going according to plan, you’ll see, Trump’s playing 57-D chess. Trust the plan, WWG1WGA!!!”
It is, if you’re watching from the command center in Tel Aviv
Very nice article.
With south american socialism on the ropes, China suffocated, and Russia impotent, Trump is about to turn Fortress North America into Fortress American Hemisphere.
Europe? The UN? The “rules based international order”? Trump just showed them it was always USA Hegemony all along.
Once upon a time, Europe and the US had mutual interests. Now they do not. The US doesn’t need the middle east any more. Europe cannot survive without it.
Instead of pandering to leftists while simultaneously suckling at the US teat, the EU should have put on its big boy pants, said no to mass immigration, sent the greens packing, and patched things up with Russia.
Now they are on the brink of ruin.
I’ll never accuse Trump of playing 4D chess, but he is playing a great game of Risk. And now he’s about to teach the world why you never make Europe your home base.
The Europeons could go crawling back to Russia and get oil and gas from them – except they’re too f’ing stupid to do it.
“China suffocated” Really? Could you explain what you mean by this?
I can’t find a concise source (because official data from china is “suspect”) but this is basically the idea
https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-exports-imports-shrink-again-dec-weakening-global-demand-2023-01-13/
The data is old but it hasn’t gotten much better in the interim
Ever since the Evergrand crisis, china’s house of cards “economic miracle” has been falling apart. Coupled with population decline (rumoured at under 1B and falling fast), and its cheap Iranian oil spigot just got shut off, china only has headwinds for the future. (Muduro’s capture and bring Venezuela to heel is all about kicking chinese influence out of South America.
Also all those future generation missiles and radar systems that the US nullified without much of a sweat (deployed in both Iran and Venezuela)…? A lot of those were made in China.
So China is not in a good position from all of this.