The dead Ayatollah won
As everyone knows - because we pay attention to the news - it was a stunning surprise to when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz after we (along with Israel) assassinated Iran’s leader, the ayatollah, on the first day of our illegal war. I mean, who could have predicted that? Certainly not me.
So it was a surprise when younger me sent a message through time via a Facebook memory that a year ago Iran’s Parliament voted to close the Strait.
But they didn’t close the strait because the ayatollah vetoed the idea.
Naturally the first thing we, along with Israel, did when we attacked them early this year was to assassinate the ayatollah. The one who could have closed the strait but chose not to.
You probably think I’m making this stuff up, but I’m not making it up. We killed the guy who prevented us from having to pay $1.60 more per gallon for gas for months.
According to a Newsweek story by Peter Aitken dated June 22, 2025:
Following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday, the Iranian Parliament has voted in support of closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil transit chokepoints, according to media reports.
Any final decision on retaliation, however, will rest with the country’s Supreme National Security Council and leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The parliament vote merely advises him of the option to pursue.
Seriously. While recently the news was struggling to explain the Strait and how oil moves through the region the US Energy Information Agency provided a far better explainer almost 9 months before. You can read that here.

The bottom line, as far as I’m concerned, is that the negative consequences of attacking Iran were entirely predictable and that our our leadership, the commander in chief and his secretary of war, were both utterly incompetent and ineffective in prosecuting what was, in fact, an illegitimate and illegal use of force.
Let’s face it, Iran defeated the US and are continuing to embarrass this administration in enumerating the terms of surrender which Trump or his designee will eventually sign.
Like Trump’s surrender to the Taliban this surrender will soon be forgotten as well, by us anyway, not by Iran.
This is just a reminder to future me. I call it history.



Attacking Iran was extremely effective in changing the news cycle away from the Epstein files, which still have not been released fully, despite a law requiring their release.
Trump’s losing to algae. I wouldn’t crow too loudly about the victory if I was the Iranians. Then, who would expect Trump to outwit a single celled life form.