India, March 15 -- When Donald Trump announced Operation Epic Fury on his Truth Social account on the morning of February 28, he claimed it would be swift and decisive. More than two weeks on, the Strait of Hormuz - the narrow chokepoint through which nearly a fifth of the world's oil normally flows - remains effectively closed to US and Israeli-linked commercial shipping.

And Trump's many stances on the Iran-controlled Strait reveal a pattern of flip-flops throughout the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran.

The pattern was set in the opening days of the war, when Trump posted on Truth Social that the US had "destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important". He then added some sarcasm: "Other than that, ...