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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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No, because Al-Qaeda didn't need to do it - 9/11 was insane and there is no scenario where it was a sane response to US provocation.

Iran closing the Straits of Hormuz is some combination of:

  • The obviously sane self-interested act of a regime in trouble trying to play a bad hand as well as possible.
  • A cornered rat biting everything in sight on the way down
  • A defeated regime pressing their MAD button - the credible threat to close the Straits was a key part of Iran's security strategy and to make the threat credible you have to self-modify into the kind of regime that will press the button even if it is too late to save your arse.

Iran trying to close Hormuz is the predictable and widely predicted consequence of their being subject to a regime change war by a conventionally stronger adversary. And that isn't driven by the character of the regime - any Iranian regime that cared about its own survival, including a liberal democracy, would respond in roughly the same way to the same provocation. (Iran succeeding is arguably a result of poor planning by the Trump administration)

9-11 came as a surprise to everyone. To the extent that it was a response to US provocation, the primary provocation (according to OBL, the presence of non-Muslim US troops on holy ground in Saudi Arabia) was not something that would be provocative to a sane actor.