The sea power projection paradigm that allowed small European nations (and then the USA) to dominate and colonize the world is coming to an end. The world will never be the same, and the birth pains of the emerging next world order will be agonizing.
🧵 2.
The Scandinavian Vikings did not have gunpowder or cannons, but they mastered ocean navigation, and were able to assemble massive fleets that could raid or even invade other nations with up to thousands of seafaring soldiers. This was a precursor of Europe's model for global colonization through naval power and protected ocean trade.

🧵For the record, I am not pro-woodchipper, or pro-porcupine, or pro-Iran. [Explained in #2] I am trying to keep the potentially coming Great Energy World War sea battles in the realm of reality, and not a recurring fantasy of our Navy's glory days of WW2.

This coming sea war will not be Tom Cruise in Top Gun slapping around Grenada, Panama, Libya or Venezuela. Iran can bite back. 2. I am not pro-woodchipper or pro-porcupine.
I'm trying to keep our side from doing extremely stupid things.

The US Navy fled the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman just before our February 28 sneak attacks.
🧵For now, it appears that the US Navy is hanging back 1,000KM south of Iranian territory, in order to protect its ships from Iranian missiles. 2. Iran will not concede control of its 4 Aces. The Strait of Hormuz will have to be taken by force. For now, the US Navy is staying far, far away. The admirals don't want to repeat Gallipoli.

It's worth mentioning that where the F-15 went down, there are 14,000 foot mountains all around.
🧵
Iran is 6X bigger than Colorado, and is even more mountainous. 2.

🧵More US Navy warships are leaving Atlantic and Pacific bases today, presumably heading for Iran. It will take about two weeks for them to arrive. I don't think we'll attempt a run at the Strait of Hormuz until at least then, or around April 9.

European warships, if any, will take even longer to arrive, if they ever do. 2.

I have a different idea about why Trump reversed course (again) and unilaterally called a cease-fire, before his apocalyptic 48-hour deadline expired. Most ascribe this change to market manipulation, and that's probably part of his reasoning, but I think there is something much larger at play.

Susie Wiles, an ardent Christian Zionist, is still serving as Trump's gatekeeper. Joe Kent was excluded from the decision-making process that led to our joint Israeli-American sneak attack assassination bombing raids on 28 Feb. He would have counseled Trump not to make this catastrophic move.

I'm pretty sure Tulsi Gabbard has also been locked out by Wiles. Meanwhile, neocon war hawks like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, and, of course, Bibi Netanyahu, have unlimited access to POTUS Trump. Ted Cruz said he spent all day of 27 Feb with Trump, advising him to go to war against Iran, using the negotiations as a ploy. Trump has even laughingly referred to Pearl Harbor, bragging about the surprise attack.

But even Susie Wiles can't keep the V.P. and the Secretary of State from seeing Trump in person. I believe his insane 48-hour deadline, to essentially see the entire Middle East gas, oil, petrochemical, electrical generation and water desalinization infrastructure destroyed in the war escalation, has caused Vance and/or Rubio to step in forcefully.

Vance, as a former Marine, must be horrified by Graham's excited call for another Iwo Jima, (26,000 casualties, 7,000 KIA). Rubio must be taking angry calls from world leaders, warning against the catastrophe which will unfold if the Middle East is wrecked. Infrastructure that took 50 years and a trillion dollars to build cannot be rebuilt before the global economy is destroyed and mass starvation ensues. If this infrastructure is wrecked, millions will die of immediate dehydration. And it won't matter if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, as there will be nothing to ship out.

And America will be blamed, with Israel, for starting the war that triggered this unprecedented human calamity.

I believe that Vance or Rubio, or both, have pushed past Susie Wiles to tell Trump to call off his insane 48-hour countdown to Armageddon, or they will resign, and tell the world why. A resignation by Vance or Rubio would make the Joe Kent resignation seem like a tiny hiccup. That's why I believe Trump invented his bogus "Iranian negotiations" story, to call off his 48-hour countdown.

https://x.com/Matt_Bracken48/status/2035669264267419959

"But Matt, we have some A-10s roaming at will over Iran now, taking out their missiles and drones! And Cobra helicopters! Surely we will win now? 🧵
[Let's compare and contrast. Iran is 10X larger than South Vietnam, with 6X its 1970 population. Look at what we put up over Vietnam--and we still lost the war. We don't even have a tiny fraction of that over Iran. The weapons that matter will not be found by A-10s or Cobras etc. They are hiding in their launch positions until a warship tries to pass the Strait of Hormuz.] 2.

Will somebody please explain to me how, with the Strait of Hormuz a no-go-zone for the U.S. Navy, and our warships driven out of the Persian Gulf, we can support a USMC amphibious landing on Kharg Island, 750 miles from the eastern tip of Oman?🧵

Is the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group going to storm into the Persian Gulf, where our Burke-class destroyers won't go? Obviously not. This idea is insane. How about by helo and tilt-rotor? Out of range.

What if they stage in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia for helo and Osprey lifts across the Gulf? Russia and China will tell Iran where to aim their drones and missiles while the force is assembling.

Maybe a mass paradrop? Straight into an "Alamo" siege. Great idea. Not.

What if the Marines just capture some of those "small" islands in the Strait of Hormuz? Qeshm is bigger than Okinawa. Larak is bigger than Iwo Jima. Any idea how many Marines and Soldiers it took to conquer just those 2 islands, at what cost in KIA and WIA?

I keep reading absolute MORONS on X telling how some A-10s are "softening up" an area larger than South Vietnam, so that a few thousand Marines can attack and hold . . . what?

It's as if space aliens studying only still images had no sense of scale of earth creatures, and thought a mouse could eat an elephant. It boggles my mind. 2.

I'm getting a strong feeling of déjà vu with Sec War Hegseth's daily repetition of of our record-breaking bombing raid sortie numbers. We've seen this movie before. It does not have a happy ending. 🧵

Tell us when the Strait of Hormuz is open to shipping at pre-28-Feb sneak attack levels. Until then, even if we level every Iranian city, WE ARE LOSING.

And the entire world sees it, and blames us for the global economic wreckage. 2.
The part of the Iran map shaded in red is the bare minimum we'll need to clear with infantry troops. It's bigger than South Vietnam, and it's so rugged it makes the South Dakota Badlands look like Central Park. And Iran has thousands of missiles that can zoom over this area from much deeper inside Iran.

I make these maps because I'm convinced most Americans have no concept of scale when it comes to warfare. 🧵
I point to all the folks high-fiving over a single Marine battalion landing team on its way to the conflict zone. An Amphibious Ready Group's BLT means about 1,200 combat Marines going ashore.

By comparison, and please look at the chart and the islands, Okinawa took 4 Army and 3 Marine divisions 82 days to conquer, at the cost of 12,500 American KIA and 36,000 WIA. Okinawa is smaller than Qeshm.

Iwo Jima, smaller than Larak Island, took a month and 6,800 Marine KIA and 19,000 WIA to subdue.

On both islands, US Navy battleships and cruisers spent weeks blasting every suspected Japanese position with 8" to 16" cannons. All the experts were sure no Japs could be left alive. The experts were wrong.

The Iranians have spent decades digging in for this "Big Event." The Iranian IRGC Shia Islam code of martyrdom is as strong as the Japanese code of Bushido during WW2. They will not surrender, IMHO.

It doesn't matter if we turn Teheran (700 miles north) into a parking lot. 2.

https://x.com/Matt_Bracken48/status/2032494597784354842

Sinking this warship over 3,000KM from Iran was a major blunder, IMHO. This is not like sinking smaller Iranian warships at pier side, with their crews ashore.
🧵
As with beginning this war on Feb 28 with a decapitation sneak attack, [during negotiations], this was, in a sense, drawing first blood, at least in a naval warfare understanding. Why?

War has still not been declared. The Iranian warship had just attended the International Fleet Review in India and was near Sri Lanka when it was torpedoed and sunk without warning, 3,000KM from home.

Why was it a blunder? Now, when the US Navy attempts to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, if any of our warships are sunk or set on fire by Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles, the entire world will say, "What did you expect? You drew first naval warfare blood far away from the conflict zone with a submarine attack."

This sinking also paints a "legit target" sign on every USN warship, pier side or at anchor, anywhere in the world. Anybody remember what happened to the USS Cole during a refueling stop in Aden, Yemen?

That can now happen anywhere in the world that swimmer sappers or speedboats can reach a US Navy warship, and successful attacks will be seen as 100% legitimate acts of war, and not acts of terrorism.

Once again, we have set a precedent we may come to regret.

Now Trump says the US Navy is going to force open the Strait of Hormuz, and escort tankers through.
This is insanely stupid. We can't even protect our 5th Fleet HQ and naval base in Bahrain from being attack.
🧵 truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTru…
Effective IMMEDIATELY, I have ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide, at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of ALL Maritime Trade, especially Energy, traveling through the Gulf. This will be available to all Shipping Lines. If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible. No matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD. The United States’ ECONOMIC and MILITARY MIGHT is the GREATEST ON EARTH — More actions to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Mar 03, 2026

If we go to war against Iran, the world economy will crash 🧵
by Matt Bracken / Apr 09, 2025
[Substack link in first reply]
In the event of a kinetic war against Iran, all petroleum tankers will be blocked from leaving the Persian Gulf, not only Iranian ships. Iran has hundreds of mobile truck-mounted anti-ship cruise missiles hidden in rugged mountainous terrain on a wide arc north of Oman and controlling the Strait of Hormuz. This arc is 300 miles wide and 100 miles deep. Iranian missile forces may well act under standing orders to attack all shipping once an American attack on Iran begins. Even a total decapitation strike against Iranian communications will not prevent these standing orders from being carried out. Iran will be determined to share their pain across the region and around the world.

Iranian anti-ship missile forces will not fire all their rockets at the beginning of this conflict. Instead, missile teams will have separate standing orders. Teams will be instructed to scout for shipping and fire at anything in the strait on different timelines after the war begins. Their goal will be to prevent the resumption of shipping for weeks or even months. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards in charge of these missiles will not care about the pain being inflicted upon civilians in Teheran. They will follow their orders with the dedication of Japanese holdouts in the Pacific. 2. Substack link
steelcutter.substack.com/p/if-we-go-to-…

AS A BOOMER (b. 1957) who is being blamed for all the ills afflicting subsequent generations: 🧵
1. I did not vote to establish the private Federal Reserve in 1913. I was not born until many decades later.
2. I did not vote to change our real silver coins ("money") for copper coins painted silver. I was 8 years old in 1965.
3. I did not vote to change our Silver Certificate Dollars (which could be exchanged for silver coins) to pure fiat Federal Reserve Notes. I was 11 years old in 1968.
4. I did not vote to "close the gold window" in 1971. Nixon did that. I was 14 years old.

What happened to all Americans was the planned and structured debasement of our federal reserve currency (it's not real money). The 4 steps listed above allowed the politicians of both parties to print FRNs with no limits at all, always diminishing the purchasing power ("wealth") of the beleaguered middle class. 2. But this currency debasement did not affect all Americans equally. The poor could take advantage of numerous inflation-adjusted welfare programs, with free medical care, food stamps (now EBT), housing assistance, etc.

The most wealthy Americans actually benefited from the currency debasement, because the new FRNs were injected into the top tiers of our society. Banks, hedge funds, mega corporations etc. They received the full value of the new money before prices were inflated throughout the rest of the economy.

Slowly over time the real purchasing power (wealth) of the middle class was diminished. This is why I say the wealth of the middle class was stolen and transferred to the elite class in Washington and New York. I made this Monopoly meme to illustrate how this theft took place.

We can buy Greenland outright by offering direct payments to the relatively few Greenlanders, [57,000 total] granting them U.S. citizenship in the bargain. I wrote a detailed Substack on this last year.
🧵
Most Inuit Greenlanders hate the Danish, who tried to genocide them with a long-term secret IUD program, where Inuit women and young girls visiting Danish clinics for "health checks" were for unknowingly fitted with dangerous coil IUDs that were left in for years, leaving many sterile and in chronic lifelong pain. It was total "Dr. Mengele" stuff. The Inuit in Greenland are ripe for a better offer.

And in any event, Denmark's "claim" on Greenland is a total joke. Please read the whole Substack in the first reply. I'll also do some more screen grabs in an X-thread to whet your appetite. 2. On Purchasing Greenland . . .
At least we won't try to genocide the Greenlandic Inuit with a secret IUD implantation scheme like Denmark did in modern times.
steelcutter.substack.com/p/on-purchasin…

MAP THREAD 🧵
1. I am a visual thinker, and I love maps and charts, so I just put this together. I believe that the Venezuela situation is about a lot more than stopping drug boats.

In my opinion, we are moving from peacetime economic trade war conditions to a quazi-kinetic war for the critical natural resources needed by the major powers in our emerging multipolar world.

This is a tri-polar world if you consider the three greatest military powers, the USA, Russia and China. Or it's a bipolar world if you consider it to be a contest between the USA and its allies, and the BRICS bloc. More maps will follow. Suggestions, additions and corrections will be welcomed. 2. As I said above, the fleet assembled in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific is not really about stopping drug boats. It's about securing the largest oil reserve in the world for the U.S. refineries.

Why you can never ever completely trust any Mohammedan: 🧵
1. Unique among major religions, Islam offers even the worst of its sinners, fallen "bad Muslims," an instant pathway to redemption, in order to enter paradise as a hero.

No matter if a Mohammedan has been drinking, gambling, whoring and hanging out with non-Muslims for years, he can have all the sins of his past forgiven if he dies in the act of killing infidels.

I think we saw one example of this yesterday in Washington DC.
The intentional suicide crash of Egypt Air Flight 990 in 1999 is another infamous example. 2. For reasons of national pride, Egypt Air has continued to deny the reality of what happened in 1999, but the flight data and voice recorders tell the truth. Relief First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti finagled his way into the right seat for the first part of the flight, and when the Captain left the cockpit, he put the plane into a dive while repeating "I rely on God!"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_…

After doing my own research, it's my considered opinion that the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage was a joint US Navy-Polish endeavor. American Seahawk helicopters landed and refueled at a Polish base on the Baltic. I'm going to make a thread with some of the graphics I created at the time.🧵

https://x.com/Matt_Bracken48/status/1977991241989017814

Imagine a $45 minimum wage, with full employment. Families living on one salary, with housewives staying home to raise their kids. That was America, before we were robbed blind.
1963: JFK is assassinated.
1964: Millions of silver JFK half dollars are minted.
1965: Silver coins are changed to painted copper.
1968: Silver certificate dollars redeemable in silver are changed to bogus "federal reserve notes" redeemable in nothing.
1971: America closes the gold window.
1971-2025: Budgets are blown sky-high to infinity with the private federal reserve printing trillions of federal reserve note "dollars" out of thin air backed by nothing. Well-connected banks and financial institutions benefit the most by the "Cantillon Effect." New money creation is actually a wealth transfer from the middle class to the most wealthy and politically connected.
2025: The U.S. federal debt stands at 38 TRILLION dollars, and is growing at 180 BILLION dollars per month. A crash and collapse worse than the 1930s is now inevitable.
This is why the prices of gold and silver are soaring. Banks and knowledgeable investors are buying all the physical, delivered gold and silver they can get their hands on. They know what's coming, even while they assure Joe Sixpack that all is well, so just keep watching sportsball . . .
They don't want to compete in a panic stampede to the lifeboats, not until they are already motoring far away from the Titanic in their own megayachts. Grok: What is the economic theory that holds that when new money is created by central banks, it mainly benefits the first ones who get it? Can you explain this theory?

Inflation is planned theft from the working class on a massive scale.
A short pictorial thread.
🧵 In 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered.
- In 1964, millions of commemorative silver Kennedy half dollars were minted.
- In 1965, American silver coins were replaced by silver-painted copper coins.
- LBJ had to fund both "guns and butter," the massively expanding Vietnam War (that Kennedy was against) and his "Great Society" program at home.
- The timing over 3 years is amazing.

Please watch the video and ponder what is coming.
Their weapons are already in place and ready to be passed out.
🧵 thread

https://twitter.com/ricwe123/status/1898701086124363962

2/ The escalation of the phases of jihad conquest may appear random or confusing to non-Mohammedans, but they are not. First, they will infiltrate a target nation in the "Dar Al Harb" (the House of War, that is, a non-Muslim nation) while posing as "moderate Muslims fleeing war and disorder."

There will be periodic small and large terrorist actions, from singleton stabbers up to Bataclan and Mumbai attacks, but these are just warmup acts to get the pot boiling. Mohammedans also have their own "accelerationists" striving to move the timetable to full jihad conquest forward.

[Importantly, every jihadist who dies while killing infidels gets a free pass to the perpetual 72-virgin orgy in Mohammed's sick paradise.]