Natalie Kitroweth

But you have to wonder, or at least I do, whether in this case, people, policymakers, lawmakers, just end up looking at this episode and blaming Trump and Israel for it, for all the disruption that has followed from the initial attack.

This appears, I think, to many as a war of choice.

And those strikes are what prompted all of this.

And so it seems possible that there would be some reticence to see this as revealing some sort of structural problem and more of a willingness to see it as potentially a one-off attributable to these two leaders in this moment and their decisions.

At least three ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz were attacked on Wednesday, according to a British maritime monitoring group.

Iran's naval commander appeared to take responsibility for the strike on one of the ships, which he said, quote, We'll be right back.

The U.S.

military said on Tuesday evening that it had attacked 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier in the day, Trump had threatened Iran over reports that mines were being deployed in the strait.

The news capped off a day of confusion about the viability and security of the passageway.

After the U.S.

Energy Secretary posted on social media that a Navy warship had successfully escorted a tanker through the strait, oil prices plunged in a sign of new optimism about the route opening up.

But then shortly afterward, a military official said that hadn't happened, the social media post was deleted, and prices went back up.

After receiving a classified briefing from Trump officials on the war, Senate Democrats warned that the administration was not close to achieving its goals.

And demanded public hearings on the objectives and endgame for the war.

And airstrikes continued in Lebanon on Tuesday, where Israel's mass evacuation orders and bombing campaign have made the country a new front in the expanding war.

A humanitarian crisis is looming there, and the United Nations has said that 700,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced from their homes.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that Iranian airstrikes had wounded 140 U.S.

service members, in addition to the seven U.S.

service members who have been killed.