President Donald Trump has 'paused' so-called Project Freedom. Supposedly, it's because the Pakistanis asked him to. Nothing at all to do with the reality that almost no ships had actually gotten out of the Strait of Hormuz as a result of it i.e. it was a complete failure. The line is that a deal is SO close that it's worth pausing the project (not the blockade, mind, because that's mostly being successful) to see if final agreement is reached. And yet, even as the media and the stock market takes Trump's bait again, the mood music from the other side isn't exactly encouraging. Let's discuss.