One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Wonder what the Japanese, right after end of WWII, thought of the U.S. use of Hydrogen Bombs. Might they have called this country (the only one still to have used such weapons) a bunch of terrorists - if the word was thrown around so loosely back then as it is now?
Prior to the use of "little boy" on Japan...it was a country trying to conquer other countries for the resources in those countries. Countries that had never shown any aggression towards Japan...those countries were easy targets for Japan and they viewed Japan as "terrorists", "rapists", "murderers", et cetera. Fast forward, the deception of the Japan's representatives in the U.S. to setup the infamous Pearl Harbor put WAR with Japan into play. Fast forward again with Japan becoming more suicidal in their quest to conquer the U.S. and it's allies... America was tired of losing lives in the WAR and that put into motion the development of the nuclear bomb to save American lives and to end the WAR along with preventing Japan from waging WAR on other countries like it had been doing prior to Pearl Harbor. My point, when a country becomes a threat or makes threats to kill Americans at all cost...it's time to pay attention to their threats especially when they're developing (enriching) radioactive material for military use or terrorist purposes. I'm sure Japan viewed Americans as the bad after the nuclear bombs were dropped on them...just as the Americans views Japan after they attacked Pearl Harbor. Anyways, Iran is a bigger threat than Japan was in comparison because Japan didn't have scientists and nuclear facilities trying to develop nuclear weapons. Regardless, I'm sure Japan thought the U.S. use of nuclear weapons on them was a terrorist act, no fair, inhumane, et cetera. Yet, the U.S. already thought the same of Japan prior to dropping nukes on Japan especially after the deception of peace that led to the attack at Pearl Harbor...old news. Today, Japan is a better country in the world after losing the WAR when it surrender after the nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan. It was a very strategic nuclear bombing to force the end to an ongoing WAR. Iran is lucky so far, no nuclear weapons have been used to stop their threats and terrorist activities for several decades against Americans, our military, and the rest of the world considering Iran is much bigger than Japan. By the way, I'm from a military family with close family connections to Indigenous Sioux Wars, WWI, WWII, Vietnam via ancestors. Also, I myself have served in the U.S. military with several MOS including as a 74A...I've served in the Middle East. Two of my college roommates were Jewish and Muslim in my last year of college. Both of them would go back and serve in their country military too. The other roommate is now a well known U.S. Republican congressional member although he wasn't political we weren't political at the time when we were roommates. We all got along very well. Life changed very fast after college. Unfortunately, we all now have our horror stories from WAR or bombings but they can be much worst when someone is trying to posses nuclear weapons for the purpose to use them to threaten another country after vowing to wipe countries off the planet. wrbtrader
I think this is another area where - if it is closed- that Mr. Trump will give them a deadline of X number of days/hours to open it. And if they do not the Americans and other international interests will open it PLUS the Americans will take out Iran's oil infrastructure. So it would be their choice, again. The Strait of Hormuz is not exactly international waters because it falls within both Oman's and Iran's territorial waters but it is an open shipping lane per international maritime law. The Saudi's need to put their oil through that strait as well so they will have issues. I could see them talking to Trump and telling them to go ahead and take out Iran's oil infrastructure as needed and we/the Saudis will backfill any loss on the open market. The Chineses get 90% of their oil from Iran at bargain basement prices because Iran is a sanctioned country for the civilized world. So China definitely has an interest in seeing the Iran does not piss off some country that could take out their oil infrastructure. Such as the Americans of the Israelis. I suspect they will be telling Iran to keep things somewhat bounded.
Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz by laying mines. The country has numerous vessels as well as diesel submarines which can lay naval mines which would need to be swept before oil tankers can transit the straight. I expect the immediate response would involve the U.S. taking out the entire Iranian navy as well as their naval port facilities to stop Iran from laying mines. IMO this is a more likely response than taking out Iran's oil infrastructure.
Could the US guarantee Iran couldn't attack any ship passing through? Just the possibility of ships being attacked by Iran would cause a major disruption imo.
We could take out Iran's ability to lay mines that would muck up the Strait for weeks as they would need to be swept before oil tankers could transit safely. It is doubtful that the U.S. could guarantee that Iran couldn't attack a vessel passing through with missiles, rockets, motor boats, drones, etc. But at least this threat ends when Iran surrenders or ceases aggression. Mines may still take weeks to sweep up even after Iran surrenders or ceases aggression.
I dunno. I will leave that calculation to the Americanos. The problem with taking out their Navy is that the U.S. is trying to avoid not only the appearance but the actuality of being at war with Iran. It's pretty hard to maintain that ruse when you take out a country's Navy or engage their warships and kill their soldiers/sailors, eh? Whereas, taking out a bunch of civilian infrastructure sh#t after giving evacuation orders it is a step down from that. As I said, I will defer that calculation to the Pentagon and the President. The Iranians have some calculations to consider too. I would give them plenty to think about.
Well Iran can still cause all kind of hell imo.I'm also thinking the US will have to commit a lot of resources trying the protect the strait from every kind of attack 24 hours a day.After a few successful attacks the strait will be effectively closed as many ships just wont risk going through it.The mess of oil tankers being hit by Iran and spilling oil will also be a disaster. Oil prices will shoot through the roof.If Trump attacks Irans oil infrastructure along with the strait being unsafe to travel through oil prices will really shoot through the roof.If Iran retaliates by attacking Saudi oil good lord Great job Trump!!
The best retaliation by Iran might be 10.00-20.00 a gallon US gas prices along with The US military having to police a middle east country again trying to protect the strait.They might be able to accomplish that.
Few know but Japan had an atomic bomb program during WWII, it was far behind the Manhattan Project, but they had physicists, heavy water experiments, and even a Nazi-Japanese axis for tech exchange. The Japanese navy and army both explored fission weaponry independently. To me this attack is "Wag the Dog" 1997. Trump wanted a win, Bibi needed a win at this time. They should not rewarded.