President Donald Trump had originally proposed peace negotiations based upon Iran's 10-point proposal, but all of that was totally ignored when the talks actually began. According to media accounts, the American team led by Vice President JD Vance and New York City real estate developers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff instead issued unacceptable demands to the Iranians. These included that the Iranians must abandon all the nuclear enrichment activities to which they were legally entitled and also relinquish their control of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that they currently control. Perhaps Vance and the others surprisingly expected to win at the negotiating table what their American military had completely failed to achieve in six weeks of warfare, and were disappointed when the Iranians stood firm.

Astonishingly enough, a Washington Post columnist had recently called for the assassination of all of Iran's leaders and negotiators unless they bowed to American demands, and this led some to suggest that the Iranian team should fly back to their own country on a Russian or Chinese airliner lest the disgruntled Americans shoot their plane down. America as a nation has sadly begun to resemble some unfortunate animal suffering from rabies, a pattern of behavior that also reflects what journalist Glenn Greenwald has decried as the increasing "Israelization" of our political system. But perhaps this merely demonstrates the remarkable extent of American desperation after more than six weeks of a lost war.

Meanwhile, the most substantive outcome of these failed talks was Trump's announcement that he would impose his own blockade on the Persian Gulf, ordering his navy to seize all oil tankers that pass the Strait of Hormuz in order to eliminate Iranian oil revenues. Given the dangers of Iranian missiles, our warships will probably be forced to remain far from the Iranian shore and seize these vessels on the high seas, constituting blatant acts of illegal piracy. And even if successful, such a measure would remove at least 1.5 million barrels of oil per day from the international markets, thereby greatly driving up prices. Indeed, this was the exact reason that just last month America had suddenly lifted all sanctions on Iranian oil, allowing all of it to be sold internationally, but the Trump Administration is hardly notorious for its logical consistency.