It appears, finally, that MB is now running Australia’s response to the Iran War.
Having lied to the Australian people for three weeks, the Cabinet pivoted over the weekend, illustrating that it has been reading and is starting to catch up.
First, Australia has joined a broadening coalition of navies headed to the Strait of Hormuz to help reopen the passage.
This is little more than a turkey shoot operation for the Iranians, which I expect will fail; however, it does curry favour with the Americans, ensuring they supply us with more fuel. To wit.
On Friday, Reuters, citing shipping data from trading sources, reported ExxonMobil, BP and Vitol were shipping record amounts of fuel from the US to Australia, filling a gap left by the loss of regular volumes from Asia.
Around 240,000 metric tonnes of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have been loaded, or will be loaded from the US Gulf Coast and West Coast for shipment to Australia. This represents the most fuel shipped to Australia from the US in a single month in more than three decades, based on US Energy Information Administration data.
Second, the Cabinet has also adopted my suggestion to immediately open a discussion with North Asian allies on how to guarantee an LNG-for-fuel swap.
Australia may use its LNG and coal exports as leverage to help secure the flow of oil tankers from Asian allies as Energy Minister Chris Bowen revealed the cancelling of six ships destined for Australian shores in the next month signalled the risk of further disruptions to the supply chain.
Third, as you can see, the government is now admitting that we’re being cut out of the global fuel supply and have already lost 7% of expected deliveries. Expect this number to grow very quickly from here.
So far, so much better than Friday.
Where the government is still sorely lacking is in applying rationing. The 1984 Liquid Fuel Emergency Act should have been in force three weeks ago, rationing petrol in cities in return for free public transport.
The much more critical shortages of jet fuel and diesel should also be addressed by cancelling all non-essential travel using either fuel to ensure the economy has as long a gangplank as possible to remain in operation before it steps off into the abyss.
As for the war itself, I am sure you can all see that as of Saturday, the American Idiot started his way up the escalation ladder by threatening Iranian power plants.
Predictably, the IRGC has responded with a threat to level all Gulf desalination and oil infrastructure, which it will do with these, given that much of the Gulf is out of defensive missiles.
Contrary to popular belief, Iran does not use much desalination. It uses groundwater. So it can safely render much of the southern and western reaches of the Gulf entirely uninhabitable in a few days of concerted missile attacks.
The American Idiot is now toying with the complete annihilation of 20% (25% once Iran orders the Houthis to close the Red Sea, and it will) of the global oil supply while pushing 100 million people to die of thirst within a week.
All of this is to make them “safer.”
The American Idiot has given Iran complete control over this war. Pushing the red button now can only be seen as pursuing the doctrine of “America Only,” which is nothing more than the American Idiot surveying himself in the mirror.
