NOVEL APPROACH – A FULLY LINK-SUPPORTED E-BOOK AVAILABLE IN AMAZON KINDLE

  

OPINION

There are numerous aspects and ramifications of the conflict between Iran and the U.S. and Israel. One of them is that the interests of the U.S. and Israel, which in the past have aligned seamlessly, are not necessarily congruent in context of the growing competition between the fundamentally different economic models of the U.S and China. As of this writing, the ability of the U.S. to service is massive (and growing) debt and to spend beyond its means depends on the dollar’s role as reserve currency of the world (RCW). In recent years that became increasingly imperiled when a growing number of central banks began to reduce their dollar reserves, a process known as de-dollarization. At the end of 2025 Iran and Venezuela, heavily sanctioned by the U.S., were selling oil to China in yuan. That reduced the global demand for dollars and, by extension, threatened the liquidity flowing into Wall Street. As of the latter part of June 2026, the situation has been fundamentally redressed. Venezuela and Iran are both allowed to sell their oil in U.S. petrodollars. this extends the dollar’s reign as RCW and the continued ability of the U.S. to pay over $1.2 trillion annually (about $3.3 billion per day) in gross interest expense on its (growing) national debt. So, irrespective of any justifiable aversion to the war’s tragic consequences, it’s only fair to give credit where credit is due. For the foreseeable future Mr. Trump’s actions have triumphantly succeeded in parrying a lethal threat to the U.S. economy, and by extension, its very existence as a functional state.

There are of course other aspects to consider. One is that the role of oil is bound to decline irreversibly as China and the rest of the world embrace, over time, other forms of energy. Paradoxically, this trend makes all oil-dependent countries, including Russia, the U.S. and Iran, ironic bedfellows as they face this unavoidable reality. What’s worse, so far, no feasible, comprehensive plan to deal with it has been made available for public scrutiny. What awaits is chaos.

By the same token, China’s efforts to expand solar/battery and nuclear energy alternatives to wean itself from oil, while commendable, does not alter the fact that with nearly 20% of the global population, it only has about 6% of the world’s freshwater resources. Likewise, India, with roughly the same percentage of the global population, has access to only about 4% of the world’s freshwater resources. In addition, the great aquifers of the world are quickly being depleted, which will eventually impact food production; and desalination, a necessity in the Middle East and Southern California, has serious disadvantages.

The Israel/Iran conflict has a unique dynamic. Israel’s policy to not allow an independent Palestinian state and to gradually absorb the West Bank (called Judea and Samaria in Israel) rests on its ability to enforce it. In turn, that rests on its ability to perpetually maintain its qualitative superiority in terms of military power over any combination of Middle Eastern states, including Iran. At best, it’s difficult to imagine how that could happen without perpetual unwavering U.S. support. In other words, it aims to live in a permanent state of war, either hot or cold, and to always win all its battles. That does not seem rational. There’s no guarantee that the U.S. will always be willing (or able) to come to Israel’s assistance, and no country or empire, including Rome, always won all its battles. One reason the Palestinians have not succeeded in mustering the power to create their own state is because they’ve never had a patron supporter on par with the U.S.-Israel duo. Iran is the exception, and there’s no telling just how powerful they’ll eventually become. On that note, it might be prudent for Israel to reconsider its position.

Lastly, it’s worth asking if the horror of the Strait of Hormuz would have impacted the world to the degree it did, had the world developed the means to simultaneously solve the world’s water shortage and to replace oil with green hydrogen from electrolysis of seawater. The book above describes how and why this could be done, gradually and imperceptibly.