Iran's Influence in Global Politics

the reality is the Strait of Hormuz is proving just as effective as any nuclear deterrent, isn't it? Because everybody knows that Iran still maintains control of that strait and can turn it on and off whenever they feel like. And I'd be astonished, given the long and unillustrious history of this regime, if they didn't use that to maximum leverage effect. Why wouldn't they? Yeah, you're exactly right. And what we've seen is that Iran has managed

to turn this conflict into the most significant blow against the United States that any country has been able to execute in many decades. Not only does the United States look like it's in the pocket of a much smaller, more kind of unpredictable country, Israel specifically. Not only has this separated GCC allies from the United States, the UAE has dropped out

of the oil consortium. Not only do we see that the closest Western allies in the world, in Europe, have distanced themselves from the United States, and that's not even counting how America looks at itself through the lens of politics and identity and global leadership. So just simply by surviving, Iran has shown that small can be powerful, and that the United

States can be overcome, possibly even defeated. Because if the Ayatollah stands, if the Iranian Republic continues to persist in Iran in its current form, if we reach the end of this war. What was it all for? And it shows that they won.

And if that doesn't inspire and encourage and maybe even provoke countries like North Korea, Cuba, continue to encourage countries like Russia, China, other adversaries competing for global dominance, I don't know what will.