What Open Means, What Was Accomplished & What Comes Next – Top 3 Takeaways – April 10th, 2026
Takeaway #1: What “open” means
A cease-fire deal with Iran continued to hold through day 2, increasing the likelihood that what we’ve seen take place militarily is the extent of what will take place militarily with Iran during Operation Epic Fury. Meanwhile, attention remains on the standoff over shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Mainly, that American forces remain positioned in an offensive posture until a permanent peace deal is in place and our NATO allies have offered little more than hollow words that they’ll help ensure the safety of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The stakes are high as peace talks are planned this weekend between the U.S. and Iran. There’s a good chance that what ‘open’ means to you isn’t what “open” means regarding the Strait of Hormuz. And there’s a good chance that generally you couldn’t care less about the finer points of how it is that a shipping company does or doesn’t navigate the Strait of Hormuz...but rather that you don’t want to be paying $4 for gas. But of course, the two are currently interconnected and yesterday the tangled web of ceasefire diplomacy became much clearer as to what the definition of open according to Iran currently means. According to the CEO of Dhabi National Oil Company (the UAE’s state-owned oil entity – a credible authority) as he addressed what the current state of the strait was yesterday he said: This moment requires clarity, So let’s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is being restricted, conditioned, and controlled. That is not freedom of navigation. That is coercion. So, in other words, technically the strait is “open”, as in if you want to take your ship through – you're welcome to – however you’re going to potentially be inspected by the IRGC and they’re going to demand some palm greasing. So Iranian Revolutionary Guard coercion, as it was put, is currently standard of what’s “open”. Predictably most shipping companies are looking for more certainty. That’s why only nine ships made it through the strait yesterday. If you’re a glass half full kind of person that was progress, because only 2-3 had made it through prior to the ceasefire and only 7 went through on day 1. But we’re still only seeing 11.7% of the traffic traveling through the strait that we ordinarily would have yesterday – because unless you’re down with the IRCG’s ‘safe passage’ policies you’re still not shipping. This is also why oil ticked higher to $98 per barrel yesterday. With that said, the key to the next phase of diplomacy – Israel ending attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon took to big step when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he’d directed his cabinet to negotiate with the Lebanese government about the disarmament of Iran’s largest terror proxy in the country.
Takeaway #2: What was accomplished
Senator John Fetterman told Sean Hannity that he remained the only elected Democrat supporting President Trump’s Iranian war and ceasefire policies. He said that “the Iranians only respond to power” and that President Trump’s actions have “made the world safer”. He also added this to those on the Left riddled with TDS suggesting that simply posted words on social media now amount to a “war crime”... Every single thing Iran has done is an entire war crime. Now, we are the force of good in the world. It’s unclear if we’ll resume the offensive with Operation Epic Fury from here (the further into the ceasefire we go the better the chances that it will hold)...but here’s the scorecard on what we’ve specifically done that has in fact resulted in a safer world with devastating losses sustained by the world’s top state-sponsoring terrorists. Operation Epic Fury produced: 21,000 targets struck in Iran, leading the destruction of 2,000 IRGC Operatives, the IRGC’s headquarters, 50 senior officials (and probably 51 because how many people honestly believe that the son of the dead Ayatollah is really with the living), 500 command and control centers, 450 missile launchers, 250 UAVs, 150 air defense systems, 150 naval vessels, 120 radar systems, 100 air defense mobile batteries, 30 fuel facilities, 16 fighter jets, 7 nuclear facilities, 6 military airports, 4 oil facilities, 3 gas facilities (used by the military) and a partridge in a pear tree. And in terms of incoming... Iran has attempted 5,197 attacks with only 80 targets hit (1.5%).
Takeaway #3: The Next Conquest
Meanwhile in President Trump’s stream of coconsciousness Truth Social feed a particular comment he made gained a great deal of attention. What was that comment? All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK! The next conquest comment is what drew the most attention and while the not-so-great Danes are on notice because President Trump mentioned Greenland again this week – it’s actually quite clear that it’s Cuba that’s in question here. It’s not only part of the Axis (Chinese-Russian) power network that President Trump is successfully unraveling from the bottom up... Its government is currently collapsing under its own communistic weight. It hasn’t made the news but here’s what happened in Cuba this week... The legacy Castro regime began releasing political prisoners that the U.S. had demanded this week. In what Cuba called a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture”, the remine said they would release the 2,010 political prisoners arrested for protesting for freedom. And as for what comes next...The Cuban government has confirmed talks with the U.S., which are being led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio following President Trump’s promise of a “friendly takeover”. One of the operating ideas about what comes next is that Cuba effectively becomes a city-state of the United States. The America’s version of what Hong Kong is to China. That’s the nexus of the next conquest...