Rob Hersov: The Multipolar World fantasy is dead

Key topics:US and Israel dismantled Iran’s military and leadership swiftly.Strait of Hormuz closure boosts US leverage, pressures China and Europe.America secures global energy, reinforces dollar, and positions for AI dominance..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Rob Hersov*.Let me give you some Uber truths. While the chattering classes, the useful idiots, and the strategically braindead commentators were busy betting against America, the most consequential geopolitical shift of our generation just happened right under their noses.I stood on the BizNews stage recently and told you all that the "multipolar fantasy" is dying. I told you that a Trump-led America and the Judeo-Christian West are decisively winning against a weak Russia and a cracking China. I called the ANC leadership morons for aligning with the losing side—the tyrannical thugs in Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. And what happened over the last three weeks? The United States just quietly executed a masterclass that will be studied in history books for a century.Most people are too busy watching the bombs drop and listening to the fake news to realise that the bears who predicted the end of the American Empire are dead wrong. They are fools.The Regime in Tehran is GoneLet’s start with the obvious: the Islamic Republic of Iran hasn't just lost this war; they have been utterly dismantled. The coverage still frames this as an ongoing conflict with "escalation risks." That is garbage. What we are watching is a managed demolition of a terrorist state.Before Operation Epic Fury began, Iran had an estimated 2,500 ballistic missiles. Within ten days, 92 percent of that capability was either fired or turned to scrap metal by the IDF and US forces. The IDF took out 70 percent of the IRGC launchers and over 1,700 assets across their military-industrial base . The factories? Gone. The engineers? Gone. The command centres? Gone..Read more:.FT: Military Briefing — US/Israeli strikes and Iran's retaliation.And the naval picture? It’s even starker. US forces sank Iranian warships across the Arabian Gulf at a pace that left the "experts" speechless. By early March, there wasn't a single Iranian ship underway in the Gulf. Over 100 vessels, including 30 mine-laying ships, are sitting at the bottom of the ocean. As Trump plainly stated: their Air Force is gone, their Navy is gone, their anti-aircraft is decimated, and their leaders are gone.Khamenei was taken out on day one. His son Mojtaba is hiding in a bunker, if he is even alive and kicking, with no authority and no military to command. The regime was already running on fear, having slaughtered tens of thousands of their own people in January. The bombs didn't cause the collapse; they just accelerated the inevitable. You don't hunt rabbits when lions are still in the field, and right now, the US and Israel are hunting scared rabbits.The Strait of Hormuz MasterstrokeNow, here is where the real genius lies, and where the conventional analysis falls flat on its face. The Strait of Hormuz has been functionally closed. Tanker traffic dropped by 80 percent, and oil prices surged past $100 a barrel. The media called it a crisis. I call it a masterstroke.Iran's military capacity to force the strait open is gone. The US and Israel own the skies. So why the delay in reopening it? Because the closure of Hormuz serves American strategic interests perfectly.The insurance markets in London pulled their war risk coverage, making the strait commercially impassable. War risk premiums surged 25x overnight. And what did the Trump administration do? They didn't panic. They didn't beg. They stepped in and replaced the reinsurance market itself with a $20 billion government-backed facility. Washington is now the de facto gatekeeper of all commerce through the Strait of Hormuz. You want to sail through? You need American backing.Look at who suffers from a closed Hormuz. 84 percent of the oil flowing through there goes to Asia. China alone takes nearly 38 percent. The US? A measly 2.5 percent. Europe is feeling the pain too, with gas prices doubling. America, the world's largest domestic oil producer, barely flinched. The countries most exposed are the exact same countries that have been resisting American leadership. This isn't a crisis; it's a pressure campaign.The Bigger Board: Energy, AI, and DominanceZoom out, and you see the bigger picture. This isn't just about Iran. It's about securing the next century.In January, US special forces grabbed Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Why? Because Venezuela sits on the world's largest proven oil reserves—303 billion barrels. Under Maduro, that oil was being sold at a discount to China and Russia outside the dollar system. Not anymore. Washington took operational control of the planet's largest reserve base and rerouted the cash flows.Venezuela and Iran were the two countries trying hardest to bypass the petrodollar system, trading in rubles and yuan. Within months, both have been brought to heel. The petrodollar is stronger than ever. The main exits from the dollar-denominated oil system have been bricked up.And why does this matter? Because of AI. America's AI Action Plan makes it clear: AI dominance requires vast and inexpensive energy. Energy must be cheap at home and expensive for competitors. By controlling global energy chokepoints, America enforces that asymmetry.For Europe, the pain of a closed Hormuz is forcing those lazy lefties to finally pay for their own security, freeing up American warships to pivot to the Indo-Pacific to deal with China. And for China? They are watching their economic lifeline get squeezed. Half their crude oil imports go through Hormuz. Their strategic reserves are ticking down like a countdown clock. Trump is already using this leverage; demanding China join a coalition to reopen the strait.The Bears Are Dead WrongThere is a whole cottage industry of commentators whining about American overreach, claiming the US dollar will lose its dominance and the empire is in terminal decline. These people can’t see beyond one dimension.While they were writing their sappy op-eds, China was trying to build an alternative global energy economy that didn't run on dollars. Venezuela and Iran were the pillars of that plan. America didn't stumble into this conflict; they chose their moment deliberately to smash that architecture to pieces..Read more:.Ray Dalio: It all comes down to who controls the Strait of Hormuz — The “Final Battle".To look at the board right now and call it American decline requires a wilful blindness to reality. In a few short months, America secured the two largest oil reserves on Earth, became the permanent gatekeeper of the world's most critical waterway, dismantled China's alternative financial system, and positioned itself to win the AI race.The regime in Tehran is gone. Russia is on the ropes. China is bleeding reserves. Europe is finally paying its bills. The dollar is supreme. And the Judeo-Christian West is winning.The American century didn't end. It just got renewed for another hundred years. And for the morons in the ANC who bet against the West? Face reality and do us all a favour please and voetsek..*Rob Hersov, South African businessman and patriot

Rob Hersov: The Multipolar World fantasy is dead

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