The Strait of Hormuz is well suited for Iran's asymmetric warfare

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/us/politics/strait-of-hormuz-iran-war.html

Weakened by War, Iran Hits Back by Strangling a Vital Waterway
The threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are complicating President Trump’s calculations about how and when to end the war.
By Anton Troianovski, Peter Eavis, Julian E. Barnes and Greg Jaffe
March 12, 2026, 7:18 p.m. ET

...

“The Strait of Hormuz is a difficult, almost impossible, problem to solve through military means alone,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, who served as a senior air strategist in the Middle East in the 2000s.

At the time, General Hinote was asked to study military approaches to Iranian aggression, including a scenario in which Iran attacked shipping in the strait. His team concluded that while the United States could use advanced sensors and precision strikes to mitigate Iranian attacks, they could not stop them completely. The shipping lanes are too narrow, and the vessels are too vulnerable to a mix of rockets, missiles and swarms of small craft.

The only way militarily to guarantee the waterway is open — to move from mitigation to control — would be to take and hold the Iranian territory bordering the strait, he said.

Iran’s decision to start mining the strait injects yet another risk. The United States Central Command said Thursday that the number of mine-laying vessels it had attacked was up to 30. But on Thursday, Iran began using smaller boats — of which the I.R.G.C. has hundreds, if not thousands — for its mining operation, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence.

It could be hugely expensive, and dangerous, for the U.S. Navy to have to conduct what would most likely be a weekslong mine-clearing operation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to military officials. They said that clearing the strait could also put American sailors directly in harm’s way. And the military would need to make difficult choices about sending warships into the strait that are now being used to support the offensive mission against Iran.

...

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Operation Epic Stupidity.

[SamuelTheThird]

1. You need boots on the ground, period

A huge footprint. And that would be a bloody mess, but there's no other way to deal with this.

Pandora's box was pried open by trumpo and israel

[Attilatheblond]

4. Safe bet the least knowageable POTUS in history never even looked at a map of the area

Thinkin what he did look at is a few clips of portions of the unredacted Epstein files that Netanyahu showed him just before Bibi decided the US was going to war, and some specially edited reports on oil and gas in Iran.

[Uncle Joe]

2. I think they used the word "epic" fury because three of the four letters are also in Epstein,

and whoever came up with the idea probably pitched it that way to *rump.

Thanks for the thread dalton

[Cheezoholic]

3. It's always been Irans hole card. It's obvious. It's THE reason we or our allies never openly attacked them

This total complete fuckup by a senile old rapist and a Jr. Officer who took more orders than he ever gave, FOR A REASON, is now a wound that shall not, if ever, heal. These dipshits got played like Whales at a Geopolitical game of Hold 'em. Putins getting fat again, China's getting their oil at whatever price they desire from Iran. Iran's selling oil again and is going to get those Chinese anti-ship cruise missile's and/or the tech. When FatFuck meets Xi (if he does soon as he said) Xi's hands got FatFucks beat all to shit now. We don't want China to arm Iran China gets oil from both Iran and Russia at their own negotiated prices. The only people who win on our side are US oil companies because now they can sell their drill baby drill surplus at greatly inflated international market prices. And they aren't going to go down. What used to be the Saudi et al spigot squeeze will now be the Iranian RC plane full of C4 into a 1/4 mile long tanker spigot. I don't care if you put the ENTIRE US MILITARY in the Straits, they cannot be defended militarily. I knew big oil gave a lot to repukes in '24 but was trying to see the big payoff. Saw a couple show up before the Venezuela shit (which our tax dollars are gonna pay for). But here it is baby. Better get all you can get now before the midterms because if the other side wins the cookie jar gets padlocked. 150 billion estimated windfall for US oil companies so far.
Fuck, even W and Rummy weren't this fucking stupid.