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It's not really all that interesting that mining the straits checks the US Navy. The Persian Gulf generally is one of the most constrained operating environment
by tptacek 7mo ago
It's not really all that interesting that mining the straits checks the US Navy. The Persian Gulf generally is one of the most constrained operating environments on Earth for any blue water navy, and the straits themselves might be the defining textbook example of a naval area denial problem.
What's surprising isn't that Iran and the Gulf States have massive leverage against naval powers operating in the Gulf. Nobody is surprised that the USN can't just plow warships through the straits. What's surprising is that the USN ever would have allowed themselves to be put into this position to begin with.
- nutjob2 7mo ago> What's surprising is that the USN ever would have allowed themselves to be put into this position to begin with. Given that Trump is a raging incompetent, it's not surprising at all. This is a well known problem and what Trump has achieved is demonstrating that US military might is powerless against it unless the US is willing to commit troops on the ground and that the US is unwilling to do such a thing. Given the TACO principle it's almost a given that Iran will control the straight for the foreseeable future and other ME powers will finally cooperate and build the infrastructure to avoid it, or collapse economically trying.
- readthenotes1 7mo agoTrump hasn't been in charge of US military doctrine for the last few decades. Iran has been touted as a threat to Western Civilization and everyone knows that's only because they can mine the strait of Hormuz. That nothing was done to counter that is not Trump's fault. You can try to blame on Trump that Iran closing the strait is something he should have known would happen, but it's not really the US's problem- the US doesn't get much oil from and the replacement for the bottlenecked oil is going to come from the US.
- tptacek 7mo agoIt extremely is our problem; we can have our own supply of oil, but not our own price.
- clawdette 7mo ago[dead]