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A competent administration would have filled the reserves to capacity (75MM barrels) before starting shit with Iran. I am going to take a wild huess that they did not do that.
Kegsbreath told them he would win the war in a month.
And or just not stuck their dicks in the bear trap that is Iran.
It's 2026 and a republican has involved the US in another conflict in the middle east.
Seriously.
I mean they did nab Venezuela's oil right before all of this. They may be using the Iran war to throw a wrench into global supply and thus make Venezuelan oil more attractive. The geopolitical value of Venezuela's oil undoubtedly spiked at the onset of the war.
That's 4D chess, so I doubt it. More likely is that they assumed that the Iranian regime was at a tipping point (it was), and figured theyncould swoop in, bring "freedoms" and take all the oil from an American/Saudi/UAE/Israel puppet government. Instead, all they did was solidify the existing regime and multiply their influence by an ordernof magnitude, while significantly decreasing the US standing and influence in geopolitics.
It's pretty clear that at no point did the US plan for Iran closing the state. They should have. Every previous US government considered it the primary danger of a war with Iran. But Trump doesn't surround himself with smart people.
Also there's credible reporting that their belief that Iran would not close the strait was reinforced by the AI planning systems they recently invested in. So that's fun. The blind leading the stupid.
Processing for oil is customized based upon its properties, which vary based on the source. It isn’t possible to just swap Venezuelan oil for some other oil.
While this is true, to my recollection Venezuela actually does produce the right kind of oil for the US to refine. That's believed to be what made it attractive (the other option would be Canada). Ironically the US does not have the ability to refine the oil they now produce. That's why they export it instead.
But the idea that they're actually going to get any oil out of Venezuela is laughable. Every company that Trump pitched the idea to turned him down, because it's far too volatile a region and political situation for them to go in and set up billions in infrastructure.
I mean I know that. I never said it was an easy switch.
It is a costly, cumbersome process. What better way to make this costly, cumbersome process more attractive than to put a chokehold on global oil supply?
No. A competent administration would ban all oil extraction and import.