Iran Just Told Us What the War Is Really All About
And It’s Not About Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions…
Iran just let us all know in clear terms what the U.S.-Iran aspect of the current war in the Middle East is all about.
While Iran is an existential threat to Israel and U.S. interests in the region, this war was, and is, about a lot more.
For the United States, everything hinges on the outcome of this war.
And Iran just spelled it out with this announcement 👇
As CNN reports (emphasis mine):
“A senior official had told CNN that Iran is considering allowing a limited number of oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, provided that the oil cargo is traded in Chinese yuan. [...]
International oil is almost entirely traded in dollars, apart from sanctioned Russian oil, which is traded in roubles or yuan.”
This is a big deal, and most of the general public remains unaware of what’s happening.
In fact, if the war doesn’t go as planned, it likely means the end of the post-World War II global financial and military dominance of the United States.
What Iran Is Doing
Iran’s statement about trading oil in Chinese yuan instead of U.S. dollars is a direct attack on the petro-dollar, one of the primary pillars of U.S. financial and military power over the past five decades.
The ability of the U.S. to project military power across the globe and secure vital waterways is one of the primary reasons the U.S. dollar dominates international trade.
And of course, one of the reasons the U.S. military is able to project its power across the globe is because the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency.
It’s a symbiotic relationship, and a breakdown in one component leads to a breakdown in the other.
This is what Iran and its BRICS allies are aiming to do.
But to understand this attack on the petro-dollar, we first need to understand how and why the petro-dollar came into being.
The Petro-Dollar
On August 15, 1971, President Nixon ended the U.S. dollar’s convertibility to gold, transforming it into a pure fiat currency. This means the value of the dollar is derived from nothing more than government edict.
Faced with the prospect of runaway inflation, the United States needed to peg the dollar to something of real value while maintaining its ability to print more dollars to fund social programs at home and military adventures abroad.
This led to the creation of something known as “the petro-dollar.”
I wrote about this previously in a 2024 article, “Why Does the World Seem to be in a Constant State of Crisis?“:
“In 1974, Henry Kissinger brokered a deal with Saudi Arabia wherein OPEC agreed to only trade oil for dollars. This has helped underpin demand for U.S. dollars for the past 50 years, but now the petro-dollar is ending. Saudi Arabia and OPEC are increasingly accepting other currencies for oil. U.S. debt is at unsustainable levels. Foreign nations are dumping U.S. debt in favor of gold, and the BRICS nations are attempting to create an alternative to the U.S. dominated global financial system.
In other words, the post-World War II order of global military power is transforming, and the current global monetary system is coming to an end. All this and more is why we see U.S. power and influence in decline, an increasingly fragmented global order, and a world where it seems we’re moving from one crisis to the next.”
In other words, one of the reasons the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency and the dominant currency of international trade is because it’s needed all over the world to purchase oil.
What happens to the U.S. dollar (and the United States) if that’s no longer true?
This Is a War About China and BRICS
Back in June, I made the case for why the U.S.-Israel-Iran ceasefire would not last, and why the U.S. and Israel would ultimately seek regime change.
And on the night the current conflict began (Feb 28th), when everyone in the mainstream media was celebrating a swift and quick victory for the U.S. and Israel, I pointed out two pressure points Iran could exploit:
1) Closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and
2) Attacks on oil processing facilities in the Persian Gulf.
We’ve seen Iran follow through on both.
In doing so, they’re not only economically trying to pressure the U.S. to stop its attacks, but they’re also trying to destroy the petro-dollar 👇
This is a strategic move by Iran and its BRICS allies to deal a powerful blow to the post-World War II global financial and military dominance of the United States.
Likewise, part of the reason the United States attacked Iran and communicated its desire for regime change was to reassert its post-World War II global financial and military dominance 👇
China has ambitions to become the dominant global superpower of the 21st Century. They’ve already become the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. Much of the global supply chain travels through China.
They desire for the Chinese yuan to become the world’s reserve currency. They desire to build the world’s greatest military and project power throughout the Pacific theater. They desire to win the A.I. race and develop the advanced technologies necessary to cement their financial and military dominance over all other nations.
The U.S. stands in the way.
The United States and China are not only locked in a geopolitical power competition. But as part of that competition, they’re also engaged in a resource war.
China has leverage over the U.S. in that it mines and processes most of the world’s rare earth metals and other components vital to the U.S. military supply chain. But China’s great weakness is its dependence on imports to meet the majority of its energy needs.
The United States is trying to exploit that weakness. It’s why Trump called Canada (the world’s fourth largest oil producer) “the 51st state.” It’s why Trump talked about invading Greenland (a country with vast natural resources, including 10% of the world’s rare earth elements). It’s also why Trump ousted Maduro and “took over” Venezuela (the world’s 19th largest oil producer, but home to proven reserves larger than Saudi Arabia).
The United States is trying to cut China off from vital energy and natural resources. That’s one of the reasons the U.S. attacked Iran – the source of 15% of China’s oil imports.
A friendly regime in Iran gives the U.S. control over the Strait of Hormuz and control over the source of more than 50% of China’s oil imports.
This is all part of a global power struggle.
What Happens Next?
So how does this play out?
The Bible tells us Israel will soon reside in a state of peace which is described as “tranquil” or “undisturbed”:
“You will say, ‘Israel is an unprotected land filled with unwalled villages! I will march against her and destroy these people who live in such confidence!” Ezekiel 38:11 (NLT)
It’s difficult to imagine Israel letting its guard down to the point of being surprised by the Gog of Magog invasion (which includes Iran) if the current Iranian regime remains in power. Therefore, I think it’s likely we’ll see regime change in Iran.
That said, it doesn’t mean regime change comes immediately, and we can’t know what will happen between where we are today and when Israel finds itself in the state of peace described in Ezekiel 38:11.
President Trump claims the United States has destroyed “100% of Iran’s Military capability.” Yet, simultaneously, he’s calling for a coalition of nations to secure the Strait of Hormuz because Iran is blowing up oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and blocking the Strait with threats of missiles and drones.
If such a coalition materializes, it will fail. How can I be so sure?
Because we’ve seen this before.
Back in December 2023, the United States announced Operation Prosperity Guardian, wherein the United States and more than 20 allied nations launched a U.S.-led multinational coalition to neutralize the Houthi threat to Red Sea shipping and make the vital shipping lane once again freely navigable for international trade.
As part of that effort, U.S. and British forces carried out more than 900 airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen between January 2024 and early 2025.
The result? To this day, Red Sea shipping traffic is down more than 60% from where it was prior to 2023.
The U.S. and its allies failed to re-open the Red Sea. Why should we believe they can now re-open the Strait of Hormuz?
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Knowing the challenge the Houthis presented (and still present), it’s difficult to imagine the U.S. and its allies will be capable of re-opening the Strait of Hormuz outside of regime change – which means either the regime falls on its own, the U.S. invades Iran (ground troops), or the U.S. uses nuclear weapons to destroy every single person in Iran.
The first option is almost entirely dependent on hope, while the latter two options are likely politically unrealistic from an American standpoint.
This Could End the Post-World War II Influence of the United States
We walked through the various possibilities for how the war could end in the video “Will the United States Survive the Current War with Iran?“
Outside of quick regime change (meaning the regime fails internally in the next few weeks), the remaining possibilities all offer a dire outcome in terms of the United States maintaining its post-World War II global financial and military dominance.
If the Iranian regime remains in power and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) feel the United States is unable or unwilling to protect them, they’ll look for someone else who can.
China and Russia, with their influence over BRICS participant Iran, will likely be the nations who can. And a precondition for their assistance is likely to be the trade of all energy exports in Chinese yuan.
If so, it’s the end of the petro-dollar.
When coupled with the failure of the U.S. military to protect shipping lanes in both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, it will also be the end of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, the end of the U.S. dollar as the most used currency in international trade, and the end of the United States as we’ve known it in our lifetimes.
The post-World War II global financial and military influence of the United States will dwindle to a fraction of what it once was, and the United States will no longer be a major force in international affairs.
Unfortunately, this is the most likely outcome.
It’s also exactly what we would expect to see given the times in which we live.
When it comes to end times events, the Bible doesn’t mention the United States.
We might be about to find out why.
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Another great article! We are about to find out if the USA has more road to run or it has finally run out. June could be a pivotal month...
Great analysis as usual Britt. Thank you. Eyes on Christ.