Nope. Merchant vessels, regardless of what entity owns them, are civilian ships.
Rather appropriate, coming from Mr. Potato Head.
And he’s reputed to have a small “head” as well.
The so called war has just made things worse-
Iran-backed rebels in Yemen captured the strategic Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Friday, two Yemeni government sources told CNN, potentially expanding Tehran’s influence over another key global shipping route.
A day earlier, the Houthi group captured the port town of Mocha as it sought to take control of the country’s Red Sea coast.
The news sent shockwaves worldwide over the possible impact on shipping and oil prices, as well as the risk of a new front opening in the US-Iran war.
I guess coffee going to become much more expensive now.
There’s going to be a meeting in Oman between Iran and other Gulf states about the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, the Saudis have shut down their crosscountry pipeline because of an attack from Iraq. The attack was blamed on the Houthis, even though it didn’t come from Yemen.
If that’s a Trump two weeks, I’ll be long gone before they get a nuclear weapon. FYI, I’m 58 and not suffering from any chronic/catastrophic conditions.
Who had “The world’s going to pay us for the oil!” on their Bingo card?
Cross-posted in the current part of the cluster thread.
That sounds interesting.
Well, he got another one right. Yes, it’s a scam, judging by launching this vanity war while in the midst of negotiations.
Exactly how is that supposed to work? Will we voluntarily just send Trump wads of cash? Will the Navy shadow all the tankers, and sink those that don’t kick back? Will the oil companies add an extra surcharge to non-US bound oil? Will he just stick a toll booth on an island somewhere?
And aren’t they going to deduct the costs of the Strait having been closed in the first place, because the USA started a war?
And doesn’t all of that presume that something the USA does will get, and keep, shipping back to normal?
Trump’s delusional. His saying something doesn’t make it happen, no matter how much he thinks it does. (There are some things that will happen just because he says so, but neither getting shipping back to normal, nor getting the rest of the world to pay us for breaking it, are among those things.)
Another reason why this “war” is a bad idea-
Sorry, looks like paywalled the second time i clicked on it, but the headline is the critical part.
Here’s a non-paywalled article on the same subject.
Thanks!
Photos of damage to US forces in the region.
And what have the US forces been able to do?
And Iran’s assertion:
For context, during the Iraq War, from 2003-2009, the US lost 129 helicopters and 24 fixed-wing aircraft, 46 of which were attributed to hostile fire. So they’ve lost over 1/3 of that number just in the last six months. So much winning!
The Defense Department’s inspector general this week released a fresh report on the war in Iran that revealed “equipment losses” worth up to $3.7 billion — including nearly 60 aircraft. In a first-of-its-kind mandatory report to Congress, the inspector general added that U.S. Central Command reported Iranian strikes at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.
It appears that Trump’s best buddy Putin has been assisting Iran with precision targeting of US bases and assets in the region using Russia’s network of 14 spy satellites.
Some GOP politicians are standing up-
Washington — For the third time, the House voted Tuesday to block President Trump from taking further military action against Iran, with seven Republicans breaking with the president.
The vote ended in a 220 to 204 tally, marking a symbolic rebuke of the president over the largely unpopular war.
Tuesday’s resolution drew more GOP support than the previous two efforts to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers in June and July.
Three new Republicans voted yes: Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn of Iowa. The four who supported the prior resolutions were Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Nunn, who is in a competitive reelection bid, said in a post after the vote that he will “not support another open-ended war.”
“With the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization,” he said.
Miller-Meeks, another vulnerable Republican, added Wednesday, “The President needs to present a plan to Congress and the American people for how this ends so we can focus on bringing our soldiers home and lowering prices.”