The Straight of Hormuz ｜ The Choke Point Of The War
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Summary
The Strait of Hormuz is still an active war zone for cargo ships and ships filled with oil and gas trying to exit in and out of the Persian Gulf. This is a choke point for a huge amount of shipping that goes through there, and after a very active 24 hours of bombardment from both sides, this is the focus of everyone s attention today.
Transcript
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As we speak here in this Wednesday, March 11th, the Strait of Hormuz is still an active war zone for cargo ships and ships filled with oil and gas trying to exit in and out of the Persian Gulf.
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As today, numerous ships were hit by projectiles and set on fire. It's still a war zone. It's still a very dangerous place for anyone trying to get goods in and out of the Persian Gulf.
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This is really, I think, one of the major focal points of this war because it is a choke
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point for a huge amount of shipping that goes through there.
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And after a very active 24 hours of bombardment from both sides, this, I think, seems to be
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Just real quick, 65% of the energy, gas and oil for South Korea comes through the strait, 72% for Japan, 50% for India.
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So those huge countries rely on it in such a big way, and it's a dangerous place.
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And that sulfur and sulfuric acid is key components in EV batteries and transformers and many other items.
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And 33% of the world's nitrogen fertilizer and feedstock comes through the strait.
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So as we get towards spring and planting season and seeding season.
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And even some of these countries require it all year long.
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45 years ago, they built a pipeline that hasn't been used until now to the Red Sea,
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just in case there would be a problem in the Strait of Hormuz.
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So Saudi Arabia, with some foresight, now has their ability to ship their oil to the Red Sea way away from the state of Hormuz and get it to market, which is something a lot of Canadians look at going, why couldn't we have done that years ago?
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That was the first question that just popped into my mind.
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This sounds like even as an emergency backup, one of the smartest things a country could do.
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A lot of the countries that you named that are recipients of these shipments are already saying that they're on low reserves.
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The fertilizer on low reserves, fuel certainly on, and oil processed and unprocessed.
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India mentioned, I think, two weeks ago that they're down to the bottom of the barrel, South Korea.
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It's such a narrow geographical channel, and we're talking about massive targets,
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these huge container ships and tanker ships for oil and liquid natural gas.
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It's not exactly difficult to hit them if you're trying to hit them with a projectile or grenade or missile or drone.
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So it has been brought up that should we escort them?
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back in the day in world war ii canadian british and american ships would escort cargo ships through
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the north atlantic to the uk to ireland and england so they had supplies for the war effort we may be
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at that point you know we need warships to escort these cargo ships through the strait would that
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work i'm the only thing that i think of when you mention that is that so much of this is air driven
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yes drone driven yes and precision uh bombing that would that even work it would because a lot
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of the modern warships have surface to air capabilities to neutralize a lot of the air
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to surface threats that they would face so it it's expensive the missiles and ordinance they'd
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be shooting the cheap drones cost a lot of money yeah but at least you wouldn't have basically a
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naked cargo ship going through the strait a prime target to be hit and unfortunately the world needs
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the supplies that come through the strait of hormuz desperately uh and that means that if
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they're actually going to be guiding these ships through the expense to do that is going to be
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shared probably among a couple of nations if if that was the case uh and you know if it costs
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five million dollars worth of missiles to get you know uh 100 million dollars of oil through
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there's going to be some questions there's going to be i would imagine some convoying going on
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now here's an interesting canadian twist to the whole thing on tuesday in the house of commons
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when mark carney showed up hey mark it's canada welcome back yeah nice you remember us he sent
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postcards that was nice yeah he said that canada would have no offensive he was quite deliberate
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about his words no offensive role to join israel and in the united states in attacking iran now
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he didn't say anything about defensive and we do have mine sweepers kingston class patrol vessel
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mine sweepers that could be an option because there's a danger and a concern about mines in
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the strait of hormuz and it would not surprise me to find out that some of our mine sweepers are
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sent to the strait to clear to mines and he could say wait a sec that's defensive right i'm protecting
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cargo i'm not attacking anybody yeah and you know it's interesting uh usually mark carney tries to
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find a way into uh the hearts of everybody by making a speech about how canada is participating
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in something or leading the way on something and uh this was very different that was a very
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different uh mode of of uh communication with us that was like i'm not with trump in this war yeah
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well after saying he was on day one he said i'm but it was very interesting choice of words we are
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not going to be involved in an offensive role now here's the other thing right now the canadian
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military have no equipment modern enough to be involved in an offensive role that was my next
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kind of point in the united states but in a defensive role in a protection of cargo ships
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oil tankers liquid natural gas and freight going back and forth through the strait of hormuz
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we do have that ability what do you think okay so the current status is not a lot going through
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the straight of it's still not it's nowhere close to even half capacity insurance is through the
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roof for every one of these shipments absolutely uh a shocking amount uh now you know up to a half
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million dollars just to get through that stretch today's not going to help no and then with tankers
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being hit i mean the rates could change daily mike uh the other thing is you hit one of these
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tankers i'm just guessing and you seem to have some knowledge on this jim once they're hit a
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lot of these are flammable highly flammable cargo so it doesn't take much to take one out well no
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but liquid think about a massive cargo ship full with liquid natural gas or crude oil is not exactly
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something i want to get hit with high explosive drones yeah a lot of nitrogen on some of them
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you know like it just seems to me like a lot of dangerous potentially dangerous uh and or toxic
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also you sink one of these things don't forget the oil goes everywhere environmental disaster
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it really is yeah uh so not only is it going to drive prices up on things that we need
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to get our food, to get our, you know, our, our, our fuel to operate a nation, but also we're
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creating an environmental nightmare as this happens. So just for an example, on February 28th,
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the day before everything kicked off, 98 ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz on a normal day.
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And then everything kicked off by March 1st, one ship made it through and they're so desperate to
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get through there they're turning off their identification transponders on their boat now
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that's for navigation so you can see on your radar that there's a massive huge cargo ship full of
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crude oil maybe coming your way and at night or in bad weather there is a real desperation for
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the shipping companies the crews to get in and out through there i was going to say there's probably
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a lot of pressure on human beings to do things right now they do not want to do or would not
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want to do or being forced to do mike it's and here's the other thing too now it's having a huge
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roller coaster ride on the markets oil was 80 a barrel 90 over 100 back down to 80 now pushing
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90 a barrel where the average consumer the average canadian they're paying the price at the pumps
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there's been reports about diesel close to two dollars a liter gas about dan mcteague was on
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with this and he predicted that we'd be at two dollars for diesel by today and he hit it right
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on the head bang on and you can go and look on our youtube page in our feed to check his interview
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and he's been 100 correct about diesel about the price of it and even i drove by a gas station to
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the studio a dollar 60 a liter is pretty much average now he said that's up 10 cents by the
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way in two days in two days now it may go down around thursday or friday because the price oil
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has dropped down but with these tankers being hit that could be temporary and we could be back up
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again i would i my estimation on this is that the price just continues to go up because the threat
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of tankers being hit now is enough to keep the price at a reserve price and this is where donald
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trump and pete hexeth and the inner circle they did not think this through they simply thought
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that they would do what happened before they'd send this incredible wave of american air power
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unlike anyone's ever seen with stealth bombers and stealth fighters and this and that and tomahawk
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cruise missiles but they're underestimating how many drones and how many missiles and the resolve
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of the iranian people the iranian military and the iranian leadership they are being hit hard
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and they're still hitting back jim i've said this before uh i have a warehouse right do you know how
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many drones i can store in that warehouse probably thousands hundreds of thousands do you know where
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my warehouse is no exactly right this is the problem they're they're up against they're
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they're making an offensive on a country's that's defense is i think meant to draw this out as long
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as possible the longer it goes the worse it is for for the american administration for the world in
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general you're seeing stories of countries around the world about what they're going to do for the
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price of heating oil the price of gas diesel how is it going to affect us at stores in the grocery
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store we're already dealing with the start the year they predicted the price of food in canada
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a canadian average canadian would spend about an extra 1500 to 1700 dollars on food yeah before
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the all of this and before the price of diesel rocketed so now everything we're staring at a
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spring summer of everything we hold dear just basic transportation basic food basic life
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more expensive you know jim i i know that uh you're uh a dyed in the wool trump fan
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uh so let me just illustrate something maybe not quite let me just illustrate something
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uh yeah you prick did he cancel your trip um he did it's so bad so let's just review this
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the world's in turmoil over trade at the moment yes the impact of that financially has been
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devastating already to so many countries canada included yeah um there is no end in sight to how
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that's we're supposed to be negotiating kuzma and trying to figure out what happens in north
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america trump doesn't seem all that interested he's got tariffs in mind he's putting blanket
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tariffs out against the will of his own uh congress and supreme court and the supreme
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court saying you can't really do this. He's going to find a way. At the same time, he's driving up
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prices in all the key areas again by going to war with a nation that has a great deal of firepower
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in the way of fuel, the Strait of Hormuz. I think you're right. They might have had an
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underestimation when they thought, oh, we'll kill the entire family of the Ayatollah and not leave
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his son behind. And I had sent you the link earlier, Mike. The Washington Post did the math
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through pentagon sources the pentagon burned through 5.6 billion dollars worth of munitions
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in the first two days oh my god in smart bombs and missiles and everything so it's expensive
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when they're firing these 50 000 drones and you're firing a five million dollar missile
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they'll knock it out you know how much my drones are no 89 jim you're right i'll get a whole
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warehouse full of them but you know where where exactly no but that's the point they could get a
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3d printer make cheap one-time throwaway suicide drones and fire them at targets all throughout
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the gulf they could do that all day long and the longer it runs and the more people are stressed
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about the price of fuel and the price of diesel and the price of everything else and the lower
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trump falls on the poles the more pressure it's going to be for him to step out of there whether
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or not they're finally successful or not because americans eventually are going to say hey stop
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this we can't afford to live well at day 60 we shall see what uh congress does because he's got
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to go back and ask for money at that point when you've blown through six billion dollars in two
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days and that's not including that's the munitions that's not prince of brinei shopping but that's
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numbers right there not the fuel not the logistics not everything else that goes with it just the
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firepower just the firepower just the weapons to wage this war and that's the the big challenge
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now with everything happening in the strait of hormuz is how long will the world put up with
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what's happening and the cost of every everyday people how do we renegotiate the use of a safe use
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of the strait of hormuz at this point the war continues on for six months how do we manage that
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but that's the how okay who in the iranian government would anyone trust with you could
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send a neutral u.n negotiator there who do they speak with oh do you trust their word oh no they're
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they're going to wait for a moment in the future where it's advantageous for them to make horrible
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strikes if we leave it the way it is so what are the options then jim that's that's the question
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This problem with the Strait of Hormuz and tanker wars
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We're looking at almost 40 years of this, Mike,
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and hit the ships are getting cheaper and more sophisticated.
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So it's more and more dangerous to get this vital cargo
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through this tiny little piece of water than ever before.
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And I don't have any faith in Trump or Marco Rubio
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or Pete Hegseth actually negotiated a deal with a country
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They're just trying to bomb into the Stone Age.
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Many nations now desperate for the supplies that make their way through the strait.
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There's a government still in power in Iran that is not negotiating.
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What choice does the rest of the world have with Trump waging this war?
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what do we do no one can tell them to stop no one has the muscle to tell them to stop well
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netanyahu has been aimed at this for 40 years trump jumped into it in 40 minutes right and
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the plan seems to be no pun intended exploding on them and every day when you hear a press
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conference or a spin or an explanation it makes less and less sense it makes zero sense at the
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end of this there'll be nothing but casualties no one's going to win this okay so we can't use
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the straight of her moves what do we do well i mean saudi arabia is shipping all their oil because
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they're smart because they built a pipeline four decades ago to the red sea now we as canadians
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have a liquid natural gas facility in bc that helps we do have one pipeline to the lower
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mainland of bc but more so than ever this should be the the you know the the call to arms the call
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Bay and have it shipped to Europe. You know what else? Let's
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four decades ago they put the infrastructure in because when they did it there was the tanker war
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so in the late 80s they thought oil is too important to our economy and to our country
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to risk it so they built the pipeline just in case they'll need it and now they need it now
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and it's ready to go good news is we're in the ev game not that we can get any of the materials
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that we need uh thanks jim for getting through this