Editor's note: I had this written yesterday but couldn't get it posted till today. Hope this message finds you doing well.
On this day one year ago, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles from the Gaza border, raping, burning, beheading, and disemboweling civilian Israelis. Approximately 1,200 people were killed on that day, and around 250 hostages were taken, some of whom remain in captivity. Yet there is a faction of our society that actually thinks those attacks were justified and that it’s Israel that is in the wrong. This, of course, is batsh*t crazy talk.
The fact is that everyone in any nation that ever suffered what Israel suffered on October 7, 2023 would say that you have to eliminate the organization that did this. Israel is about 80% finished with that job, and it would make no sense at this point to stop before they’ve cut out the last 20% of the cancer.
What's unique about this war, unlike any other war that you could think of, is that you have an army in Hamas that has perfected the art of embedding itself with civilians so that you cannot hit them without hitting the people around them. Other armies have done this, but none have perfected it like Hamas has. No army in military history has had 15 years to build 300 miles of tunnel underneath a city in order to shelter civilians but instead use to shelter themselves so that they can operate under a kindergarten or hospital.
This is the challenge Israel has faced, one that no other army has ever faced. That's what makes this war different. And for some idiot Columbia student to say, hey, Israel, the terrorists have come up with the perfect plan and you just have to put up with it because it’s morally wrong to kill civilians, well, that just expresses a complete lack of understanding of how a moral world operates. It’s unreasonable to allow terrorists to do what Hamas did on October 7th simply because they hide among civilians; we cannot live in a world where that’s permitted.
____________________________________________
Oil sales are critical for Iran, with exports representing up to 70% of the government’s revenues. Iran has been reaping windfall profits from near-record oil production this year, with production doubling from less than 2 million barrels per day in 2019 to nearly 4 million barrels per day now and with oil exports increasing from practically zero to nearly 2 million barrels per day. This represents a $100 billion increase in revenues for use by the Ayatollah to attack Israel and jeopardize U.S. national security.
Iran has been able to export near-record amounts of oil despite technically remaining under U.S. sanctions due to the Biden Administration’s failure to enforce the Iranian oil sanctions with anything even close to the same effect as its predecessors. The Trump Administration’s focus on enforcement reduced the volume of Iranian oil exports by 95%, from 2.5 million barrels a day in 2018 to a low of 70,000 barrels a day in 2020, thereby reducing Iranian oil revenues by $50 billion.
Venezuela’s cashing in, too. The country’s August oil exports hit their highest in more than four years, fueled by expanded shipments to the U.S., China, and Europe.
The U.S. Treasury Department last year granted a broad license allowing Venezuela to freely export its oil, easing sanctions imposed by the Trump administration since 2019. The authorization was not renewed in April, but multiple energy licenses have been issued since then. For example, California-based Chevron received an individual permission from the Biden administration to do business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., better known as PDVSA, and Spanish refineries have received significant amounts of Venezuelan crude via Repsol’s projects in the country that were also OK'd by the Biden administration.
In contrast, Trump’s Treasury Department sanctioned PDVSA in 2019 as part of a policy punishing Maduro’s government for corrupt, anti-democratic and criminal activities, which makes sense when you consider that more than 20,000 people have been subject to extrajudicial killings and that seven million Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country.
According to the UN, “the Venezuelan State relies on the intelligence services and its agents to repress dissent in the country. In doing so, grave crimes and human rights violations are being committed, including acts of torture and sexual violence.” Maduro’s government has caused unlawful deprivation of life, disappearances, extortion, corporal punishment, and sexual and gender-based violence.
It’s great to see gas prices so far below their June 2022 highs, but we should all remember that the money we’re saving is blood money. Plus, we’ve now drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve down to February 1984 levels, so you might also want to consider the money we’re saving to be our own little personal disaster relief funds.
____________________________________________
I’d like to conclude today’s Insights by extending my thoughts and prayers to those impacted by Hurricane Helene, which has devastated significant portions of the southeast with massive flooding. We encourage you to donate to the Rotary Club of Asheville.
It might feel good,
it might sound a lil' somethin'
But damn the game if it don't mean nuthin'
Public Enemy, He Got Game
Click here to invest with Chad.
For disclosure information please visit:
Comments