How Voldemort's ‘anaconda’ tactics put the squeeze on Iran and China

The author is not wrong.

How Trump’s ‘anaconda’ tactics put the squeeze on Iran and China

By Glenn H. Reynolds, NY Post

Published May 11, 2026, 7:55 p.m. ET

President Donald Trump has been compared to many historical figures, by opponents (who claim he’s another Adolf Hitler) and by boosters (who cite Andrew Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt).

With his blockade of Iran, though, maybe we should start comparing him to Gen. Winfield Scott.

In the mid-19th century, Scott was America’s preeminent military mind, the architect of victory in the Mexican War and the “Grand Old Man of the Army.”

As the Civil War loomed, he developed a plan to defeat the Confederacy with the smallest number of casualties possible.

He called it the Anaconda Plan — and like its namesake it was about applying a squeeze, and squeezing hard, until its object was squeezed to death.

Rather than winning a single decisive battle or a series of major confrontations, Scott wanted to cut the Confederacy in two by seizing control of the Mississippi River, while choking off the South’s foreign trade — upon which it was enormously dependent for both money and materiel — with a naval blockade of its Atlantic and Gulf ports.

Oil tankers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz near Bandar Abbas, Iran on May 2, 2026.

Iran’s ‘unacceptable’ deal means US must open the Strait of Hormuz by force

Scott’s plan had few takers at the beginning, when enthusiasts on both sides thought the war would be finished in months, with daring cavalry charges and the like.

But when that didn’t happen, the plan became the basis for the Union war strategy — and it worked.

The South was beaten on the battlefield, but its loss came in no small part because it was being economically squeezed on all sides.

Today, Trump is following a similar strategy both at home and abroad.

With Iran, he’s choking off the regime’s oil money — and secondarily, he’s restricting China’s oil supply.

The US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz means Iran’s oil exports are stuck and piling up, with little room to store the accumulating product; shutting down the wells could do permanent damage.

Iran’s alternative trade routes — with Russia via the Caspian Sea, and with China via road and rail — are meager in comparison.

The regime cares little for its suffering people, but the blockade means money isn’t coming in, the Revolutionary Guards aren’t being paid and foreign militias are getting restive.

By keeping Iranian oil from reaching its destination, chiefly China, Iran’s former customers now must pay market price — in dollars — for the oil they need.

Meanwhile, Trump has also cut deals giving the United States control of vital maritime chokeholds in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and the Caribbean, all of them essential for going anaconda on China, should that become necessary.

China has put a lot of effort into getting ready to invade Taiwan; Trump has been putting effort into gaining the ability to strangle China if it does.