America is spending $6 billion a week on gasoline. Who do I blame for astronomical prices? Trump? Iran? Israel?

Photo above - the gas station nearest my apartment. If you take a drive, you can find lower ones, though.

Where I live (Tampa), gasoline is WAAY over $4.00 a gallon. It was $4.20 on Monday, so it could be anything today. At least we’re not living Europe where it costs twice as much because half of every liter of petrol is tax.

My inclination is to mostly blame Trump for the millions of people now deciding between groceries and topping off their tank on the way home from work. It’s clear that the White House and Pentagon were clueless about how this war would go. And they had zero plans for keeping the strait of Hormuz open. This is what we get with 400+ career pentagon generals, reporting to Pete Hegseth.

I also blame Israel. By all accounts, prime minister Netanyahu showed up at the White House one afternoon in February with a PowerPoint presentation showing how easy this could be. Drop a bomb on the ayatollah, then the unarmed population would rise up and take on Iran’s Republican Guards. Anyone who believed this would happen after 40,000 protestors were shot dead the previous month is a moron.

None of America’s and Israel’s folly lets Iran off the hook. They’ve been working around the clock to get nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them. With a political structure as theocratic and fascist at Iran has, those missiles would be aimed at everyone and everything, just as their drones this month have targeted a dozen nations, and the ships of many more.

Despite what both CNN and Fox say, there is no ceasefire. We need to stop pretending. Ships still cannot transit the gulf. Iranian drones and rockets are still striking bordering nations’ oil refineries and desalination plants. If Iran develops ICBM nukes then a continental holocaust is inevitable, so we probably can’t just walk away now.

Iran should have been a regional problem, and dealt with by a regional coalition of moderate Arab states which just want to export oil and pray to Allah 5 times a day. A middle-east NATO if you please. A regional defense organization to ensure their own security, instead of relying on the USA when the crescent moon and stars align. Let the rulers of those gulf nations defend their own interests, whether it’s some crown prince, kings, supreme leaders, sultans, emirs, or various presidents who might have fixed their nation's elections.

And a Euro-centric NATO - not USA’s nukes and air force - should defend Europe. The gulf states should be held to the same standard. Okay to for America to help ensure Israel’s safety, but let’s not get lured into any more first strikes on their behalf. Especially after what Israel pulled with their carpet bombing of Gaza last year.

I’m just sayin’ . . .