Dana El-Kurd

I think they were.

I mean, they certainly were earlier, five years ago.

But at the time in which you've repeatedly killed all the people running the country, you've kind of only made it clear that they need noobs.

And that's the waiting game that we find ourselves kind of currently locked in here.

is Iran has shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

They've, at least last I checked, I think hit 17 ships heading through the strait or in the strait.

And that's caused the vast majority of traffic that would be crossing through to hold back.

And so you've got this massive backlog of craft just kind of waiting because they can't go through.

Trump previously had made some big statements about, well, the U.S.

Navy will escort them through and we'll get like a global coalition of naval forces to escort them through.

That hasn't come to pass.

For one thing, very few governments with navies seem interested in sending sizable naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz to do this.

And for the other thing, that's not an easy thing to do.

It may seem like it because it would be a real crazy thing to all of us listening if a single U.S.

naval vessel were destroyed in combat, right?

Like the last time anything like that happened was the USS Cole, which was hit while it was in dock by a suicide bomb.

The idea of like a destroyer getting sunk would be deeply upsetting to the American people, I think probably.

And like deeply, it would be a huge problem for, let alone if an aircraft carrier were to take serious damage.

These would be serious problems for the administration.

The problem is that you can't escort fuel tankers through the Strait of Hormuz without exposing them and the ships escorting them to direct fire.