Trump doesn’t want to engage in another major military operation. The IRGC doesn’t want to fully open Hormuz. So the pressure now shifts to who will give in first. Iran believes they have the US between a rock and a hard place.
General Keane wants the US to escalate.
Two ships got through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours. Iran will never open the Strait or give it up unless we take it back by force, says Gen. Keane. They likely don’t care about the economics. They are using more aggressive language, and Gen. Keane says they will become more violent right before the midterms.
They are like the Japanese in World War II. They won’t give up, and they don’t care if their people suffer.
General Keane said Iran won’t give it back voluntarily.
They have proven they won’t abide by any concessions.
However, if we go to take control of the Strait, what happens if we escalate as we use up our munitions? Can we even keep control? What will China and Russia do?
Gen. Jack Keane with a blunt wake-up call this morning: we keep judging the pain threshold on Iran through our Western lens — the blockade’s daily economic damage, the collapsing currency and runaway inflation. We assume at some point they will fold their hand.
Wrong.
This is… pic.twitter.com/xrhwNQ8yxe
— Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) August 10, 2026
President Trump responded on Truth Social to the compensation demand.
I see that Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five months of military conflict (started because THEY WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON), even though it was never mentioned in any of our negotiations or meetings!
But it is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous, as led initially by General Soleimani, including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands of others killed in combat. Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months. I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Warmonger Mark Levin appealed to President Trump on social media:
The surest way to lose the midterms is to look like a loser in this war. It also happens to be the surest way to ensure a forever war involving future generations of Americans.
We will need to do more than declare victory by circumventing the Strait of Hormuz with pipelines, effectively surrendering the once open and internationally recognized Strait to the enemy, and celebrating a return to pre-war oil prices.
If future military operations — deadly blows to the IRGC, Kharg Island, other key infrastructure, Pickaxe Mountain, and arming the Iranian opposition — are all off the table, there’s no way this can be dressed up as a victory.
I would respectfully encourage POTUS to turn a deaf ear to the isolationists in the administration and finish the job.
