Marco Rubio Just Admitted the U.S. Lost the War with Iran

Now He’s Begging G7 Nations to Do What the U.S. Navy Failed to Do

I want you to listen very carefully to what Marco Rubio said this week, because buried inside his arrogant, rehearsed justifications for an illegal war is the single most damning admission any American official has made since this whole catastrophe began: the United States of America bombed Iran for eight months, spent billions of dollars, sacrificed the lives of our young men and women in uniform, and still does not control the Strait of Hormuz.

That is not my opinion. That is what Rubio himself is telling the G7 this week as he flies to France to beg our supposed allies to help solve a problem the U.S. Navy cannot solve alone. When the Secretary of State of the world’s allegedly most powerful nation has to travel overseas to ask for help reopening a waterway that Iran effectively controls, that is the sound of empire buckling at the knees.

Trump claimed after the strikes that the U.S. had won. Vance now admits the exact opposite — that the war cost Republicans both chambers of Congress. The U.S. is losing, Iran is winning, and the men who launched this war are now begging the world to bail them out. (It’s pathetic.)

Rubio’s Panic Is a Confession, Not a Strategy

Let me be blunt about who Marco Rubio actually is. He is a chameleon who has spent his entire career shifting positions to match whatever winds were blowing — a man who once ran as a Tea Party conservative, then helped ram amnesty through the Senate, then became a neocon interventionist, then reinvented himself as a MAGA loyalist to get a cabinet post. In my view, Rubio is a war criminal who approved the killing of civilians and now has the audacity to complain that Iran plans to charge tolls in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio’s specific claim — repeated over the years — is that Iran’s tolls violate international law because the Strait is an international waterway. Back in mid-2026, Rubio stated flatly that Washington will not accept any tolls or transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, describing the waterway as an international passage where no state may levy charges ^[1]. But that’s a lie dressed up in legal language. The Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest point runs through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, not some neutral international corridor. Iran and Oman are, reportedly, planning to jointly impose a service fee for ships transiting the Strait, according to reporting that cited an Iranian official and four diplomats ^[2]. This is the reality on the water. Iran has the legal and geographic standing to do it, and even the Gulf states themselves have quietly signaled that they are not opposed to paying a transit fee, so long as the arrangement does not hand Iran outright control over the waterway ^[3]. So Rubio is not making a legal argument. He is making a propaganda argument for more war.

Here is what makes Rubio’s posture so revealing. When he says the G7 must “do something” about the Strait, what he is actually telling the world is that the United States Navy cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force. He cannot say that out loud, of course. But every sentence out of his mouth this week is an admission of that failure. Rubio said on Sunday that Iran’s conditions — which include the U.S. ending its blockade of Iranian ports and providing sanctions relief — are “outrageous and ridiculous” and cast doubt on the chances of a deal ^[4]. Translation: Iran is dictating terms. Iran has the leverage. And the United States is out of cards.

Geography Wins Wars, Not Press Releases

I said in March, again in April, and again in May that only Iran can open the Strait of Hormuz — because I can read a map, and I understand basic geography. I was telling my audience then what Rubio is confirming now. Every so-called expert on cable news mocked that prediction. Now look who’s doing the begging in Paris.

Iran sits atop the Zagros mountains that dominate the eastern shore of the Strait. Iran has ports, missile batteries, drones, fast attack boats, naval mines, and — most importantly — the sheer determination to harass shipping for decades if necessary. The IRGC has already demonstrated this: back in October 2026, two tankers were set on fire off the coast of Oman, and Tehran was bragging about a fresh naval mine attack as part of its campaign against international shipping ^[5]. You cannot bomb a maritime chokepoint open no matter how many missiles the military-industrial complex wants to expend. You can bomb a runway, you can bomb a radar site, you can kill a general — and none of it matters one bit when your enemy holds the high ground, the coastline, and the willingness to play a long game.

This is the fundamental error at the heart of every neocon war since 2003. They believe that American airpower can rewrite geography. It cannot. You cannot bomb the Strait of Hormuz into submission any more than you could bomb the mountains of Afghanistan into submission, and we all know how that twenty-year debacle ended. In interviews with my colleague Bob Moriarty, we discussed how physical force alone cannot guarantee open passage through the Strait, and we noted that the Chinese had already demonstrated this by allowing vessels from India and Iran to pass through using yuan payments ^[6]. The old reality of free, toll-free passage through Hormuz — a reality that lasted for decades because of American naval supremacy — is never coming back. Trump handed Iran the excuse, the justification, and the leverage. Now it’s over.

The Toll Hysteria Is Economic Illiteracy

Let me talk about the money, because this is where the hysteria over Iranian tolls collapses under even modest scrutiny. Rubio is calling these tolls illegal. Fine. But so is the undeclared war that created this mess in the first place.

Iran’s reported demand of about one million dollars per tanker is tiny compared with the insurance costs that the U.S. war has inflicted on global shipping — costs in the range of one to one and a half million dollars per day. Back in June 2026 the maritime insurance world was already refusing to underwrite certain transit risks in the region, and multiple analysts — including myself in interviews — warned that if active conflict persists in the Persian Gulf, maritime insurance companies will not underwrite vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz without absolute guarantees of security and the cessation of hostilities ^[7]. A million dollars per tanker, spread over two million barrels of crude, is merely cents per gallon. That is not extortion. That is a rounding error compared to the dollars-per-gallon inflation American drivers are now paying because of this war.

Paying Iran for safe passage would lower risk, lower insurance rates, and stabilize global oil markets — which is precisely why Rubio’s bosses in the war party refuse to accept it. Rubio calls Iranian tolls illegal. But tolls exist all over the world — the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, the Bosporus, the Turkish Straits, and dozens of other maritime chokepoints all operate on fee structures. Iran also has a right to demand reparations after an illegal U.S. war of aggression. Trump ordered strikes that hit schools, hospitals, roads, and civilian neighborhoods. When you bomb a country’s infrastructure and kill its children, you do not get to lecture that country about tolls.

So when I hear Rubio complain about Iranian transit fees, I hear the voice of a man who cannot accept that his side lost. Iran’s demands for reparations — for the damage the United States and Israel inflicted during an illegal war of aggression — are not extremism. They are justice. And every American who pays for higher gas prices is paying for the hubris of a cabal of warmongers who thought they could crush a nation of 90 million people with a few weeks of bombing.

Why I’m Not Convinced Trump Is Done

I have enormous respect for Scott Ritter and Matt Bracken. Both have been right about the trajectory of this war — more often and more precisely than anyone in the corporate media. Ritter told me back in April that the United States was no longer able to maintain a dominant military presence in the region, and that this signals a fundamental reconfiguration of global geopolitical dynamics ^[8]. I agreed with him then, and I still agree with him now. But where I break with those optimistic analysts is on the question of whether this war is actually over. I do not believe it is, and I want to explain why.

Look at the military posture. A third carrier group. B-2 bombers rotating through Diego Garcia. Refueling planes. Thousands of additional troops. None of those are signs of standing down. They are signs of a president who cannot accept the humiliation of losing to Iran and who is looking for an excuse to restart. Last week, I wrote on NaturalNews.com that the nuclear risk did not end with the midterms and that Trump still had two months to destroy the world ^[9]. I stand by every word. Trump has repeatedly pretended to give diplomacy a chance while preparing surprise attacks — including an intelligence report indicating that a plan for a ground invasion of Iran by U.S. forces exists ^[10]. That plan did not disappear because Democrats won a few Senate seats. It just went underground.

The midterms may have changed some faces in Washington. Republicans lost control of both chambers ^[11]. But the uniparty remains funded by the same Zionist donors who want war with Iran, and the incoming Democratic majority is packed with the same kind of pro-Israel hawks who have funded this disaster from the beginning. As Alastair Crooke has written, the “Grand Design” to maintain western civilization’s place at the head of the world requires the use of what Herzl termed the terrible power of the purse to exert irresistible pressure on international politics ^[12]. Israel is now in talks with the U.S. to extend military aid through 2033, despite Trump’s earlier claims he would end it ^[13]. As long as the U.S. Navy stays in the region, I believe the war is not over. It could restart in ten days or in January, and even nuclear talk — the threats Trump made at the UN earlier this year — cannot be dismissed as mere bluster.

Conclusion: Pray for Peace, Prepare for Collapse

Until the U.S. Navy sails home from the Persian Gulf, I will not believe this war is over. Every carrier group that stays is a loaded gun pointed at the Strait, and the only remaining tactic the U.S. military seems to have is piracy against tankers that Iran considers under its protection. The American empire has been exposed as a paper tiger, and Iran — with mountains, missiles, mines, and sheer determination — has played the long game far better than Washington ever imagined possible.

I hope Scott Ritter and Matt Bracken are right and I am wrong. I hope this war is ending. But the pattern of the past eight months says we must be prepared for a reignition of hostilities. The safest course for American families is to pray for peace, prepare for hard times, and stop trusting the men in Washington who launched this catastrophe. Stack gold and silver, grow food, learn to live without the fragile systems that these wars are collapsing, and turn to independent sources like NaturalNews.com for honest reporting and BrightAnswers.ai for uncensored research. The war with Iran is not over — it has merely paused, and we need to be ready for what comes next.

My new course on survival and preparedness begins streaming this Saturday, free of charge, at BrightU.com where you can register to watch the entire live stream at no cost.

References

1. U.S. and Iran Clash Over Planned Transit Fees in Strait of Hormuz – NaturalNews.com, June 26, 2026. by NaturalNews.com
2. Iran, Oman Reportedly Plan Joint Fees for Strait of Hormuz Transit – NaturalNews.com, July 01, 2026. by NaturalNews.com
3. Gulf States Signal Openness to Strait of Hormuz Fees, Reject Iranian Control – NaturalNews.com, July 16, 2026. by NaturalNews.com
4. Iran Responds to Rubio’s Rejection of Its Peace Proposal. 2026-11-09T18:01:09.569Z. https://news.antiwar.com/2026/11/09/iran-responds-to-rubios-rejection-of-its-peace-proposal/
5. Two Tankers On Fire Off Oman As IRGC Boasts Of Naval Mine Warfare. 2026-10-20T12:25:00.000Z. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/two-tankers-fire-oman-irgc-boasts-naval-mine-warfare
6. Bright Videos News – Interview with Bob Moriarty PART 1 – Mike Adams – BrightVideos.com, March 23, 2026. by Mike Adams – BrightVideos.com
7. Health Ranger Report – HOLD ON TIGHT TO SURVIVE THE CHAOS – Mike Adams – BrightVideos.com, June 16, 2026. by Mike Adams – BrightVideos.com
8. Bright Videos News – with Scott Ritter P2 – Mike Adams – BrightVideos.com, April 14, 2026. by Mike Adams – BrightVideos.com
9. The Nuclear Risk Didn’t End with the Midterms: Trump Still Has Two Months to Destroy the World. 2026-11-05T06:00:00.000Z. https://www.naturalnews.com/2026-11-05-nuclear-risk-didnt-end-with-the-midterms.html
10. Some Intel Indicates That A Deal With Iran Could Be Close, But Other Intel Indicates That A Plan For A Ground Invasion Of Iran Exists. 2026-11-09T22:34:26.000Z. https://endoftheamericandream.com/some-intel-indicates-that-a-deal-with-iran-could-be-close-but-other-intel-indicates-that-a-plan-for-a-ground-invasion-of-iran-exists/
11. Report: Marco Rubio Expected to Leave Trump Administration Amid Speculation About 2028 Presidential Bid. 2026-11-06T06:00:00.000Z. https://www.naturalnews.com/2026-11-06-rubio-expected-leave-trump-administration-speculation-presidential-bid.html
12. Alastair Crooke: The Iran War & The ‘Terrible Power Of The Purse’. 2026-10-28T03:25:00.000Z. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/alastair-crooke-iran-war-terrible-power-purse
13. Report: US, Israel in Talks To Extend Military Aid Through 2033 Despite Trump Saying It Would End. 2026-11-10T00:27:57.112Z. https://news.antiwar.com/2026/11/09/report-us-israel-in-talks-to-extend-military-aid-through-2033-despite-trump-saying-it-would-end/

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