Everyone gets to pay for unexplained war

“Even the Trump administration cannot explain why they’re at war in Iran right now. The Epstein files seems to be as good of a reason as anyone else can figure out.”

— Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, March 13

In case you haven’t sidled your car up to a gas bar recently, we suggest you check your heart medication before you glance at the cost at the pump if you do.

On Thursday afternoon, gas prices at the pumps in Brandon were averaging 155.9 cents per litre, with Global News suggesting that Canada’s national average for regular gas sat just below 170 cents per litre.

Back on March 7, gas prices were already high and rising, with the price of a litre in Brandon hovering around 149.9 cents. That was just a week after the start of the war on Iran, led by Israel and the United States under the pretense of preventing the wayward Middle Eastern country from having nuclear weapons.

Since then, the war in the Middle East has only escalated, and the cost at the pumps has echoed it.

The United States has continued its air strikes on Iran, with U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the Trump administration would bring “the largest strike package yet” as of Thursday. No doubt the U.S. plans to continue the bombardment, even as the Pentagon asked for an additional US$200 billion for Trump’s essentially illegal war. And that cost will surely rise the longer this war continues.

As Hegseth so … eloquently … stated on Thursday, “It takes money to kill bad guys.”

But as distressed as Iran is, while U.S. and Israeli missiles kill innocents, destroy Iranian cultural heritage sites and take out members of its government, Tehran has still been able to cause mayhem worldwide in response.

After Israel struck Iran’s vast South Pars natural gas field on Wednesday, Iran threatened “zero restraint” and retaliated with attacks on energy infrastructure across the region, including on Kuwait and Qatar.

As U.K.-based The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday, QatarEnergy told Reuters that Iran had damaged facilities that produced 17 per cent of the state-owned company’s liquefied natural gas export capacity — with the suggestion that it will take three to five years to make repairs.

In response to that news, global oil prices experienced a dizzying rise on Thursday, with the international benchmark Brent crude spiking to about $119 per barrel before settling down somewhat later in the day.

The effect has been felt around the world. Multiple nations, particularly in Asia, have already been facing severe fuel shortages and have implemented emergency rationing due to the conflict. Much of the problem stems from Iran’s stated blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, where about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and natural gas are shipped.

Brandon was among the cheaper spots in the country when it comes to regular fuel. And while the rising cost of regular gas is hardly good for the pocketbook, it’s the soaring cost of diesel fuel that will hurt the most.

On Wednesday, CBC reported that the average retail price of diesel reached 219 cents per litre this week — the highest price since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The cost in Brandon for a litre of diesel fell between 189.9 cents and 202.9 cents.

Should these prices persist — and we see little reason for that to change as the U.S. continues to seek more cash to fund its bombing runs — it will have a significant effect on the cost of shipping by truck, train and barge. And that will only force rising inflation across the board.

“People need to worry about diesel prices because that is the fuel for which consumer goods and services are delivered,” Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CBC this week.

Perhaps the most angering part of this whole war, to be quite frank, is that it apparently didn’t need to happen at all.

Among other explanations, Trump mainly justified his war on Iran claiming the imminent threat of attack on the United States, that Iran was attempting to build a nuclear arsenal and that it should never have access to such terrible weapons.

And yet, just one day ago, Trump’s own national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, said the U.S. intelligence community had assessed the situation and believed that Iran was not rebuilding its nuclear enrichment capabilities following U.S. and Israeli attacks last year.

This revelation follows repeated statements by the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had “no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb” and maintained that Iran was not “days or weeks away from building a bomb.”

The more likely reason is the one suggested by our own Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew last week.

When Donnie does war games to distract the public, everybody plays … err … pays.

» Matt Goerzen, editor