Even in places where it is standard, gendered pronouns for countries are pretty stupid.

I would think that you would consider Iran seizing our embassy and killing 230 Marines in Beirut to be ****ing with us.

Stupid for English speaking countries for sure. That gendering everything in other languages is crazy. In Hebrew they have different numbers even for boy and girl things.

Ah yes fair point

OP are you having a nervous breakdown

I'm sure this sucks and all, but do The Marshall Islanders even see this as something that needs protecting? The ships just register with strange little countries to pay smaller fees right?

What are we supposed to do anyway? We sent a destroyer.

Isn't this as big an affront to Saudi Arabia? The ship was full of their stuff having left Jedda.

This is a lot like Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor had ships too.

Seems this is Iran's response to the U.S turning back ships they had sent to Yemen to arm the Houthis.

Wasn't Captain Phillips' ship part of Maersk?

Did you know that the Marshall Islands have the world's largest shark sanctuary, and that the Marshallese used to make charts with coconut midribs in order to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe?

Gamblor, can you tell us what acceptable actions could have been taken/unacceptable actions have been taken so far?

This certainly strikes me as a situation worth watching, but we are far from anything like the Tanker War given what has happened so far. The most likely outcome is that the ship is sent on its way without further incident.

Gamblor doesn't expect action. Just ever-so-slightly increasing the drumbeat to bomb Iran.

"Whaaaaaa?!!!?" (clutches pearls) "Who said bomb them? Me and my buddies are just going to wallpaper the media with negative propaganda articles for a few years. No end goal. We want peace just as much as everyone else."

Well there could be precedent for the op. Panama was militarily invaded, and many ships flew the Panamanian flag, so it must have been because they refused to protect the ships under their flag.

The strategic goal should be twofold: The first goal is to give comfort to existing allies (protectorates, the Gulf countries) - in particular those for whom the United States has guaranteed security - that aggression against their interests will be defended vigorously. The second goal is to put Iran on notice that this aggression will not stand, man.

The tactical methods for achieving these goals, imo, might be as follows:

1) The White House should have immediately assured the Marshall Islands - and in doing so, the rest of its allies - that it would vigourously honour its agreement to protect their commercial activities from aggression in the Straits of Hormuz. The White House should call immediately for the release of the ship, and announce that it will be prepared to enforce UNCLOS, even if Iran hasn't signed on.
Grade: F

2) Authorize escort through the Straits of Hormuz for any commercial ship with an allied flag that so requests. The White House did send the USS Farragut to sail aimlessly in circles, that is a good start, but it's just sabre-rattling that will just keep the Revolutionary Guard laughing. I want US and her allies to be able to sail freely in the Straits of Hormuz without worrying about Iran.
Grade: B-

3) The White House should have put Iran on notice. The White House should have sent notice that any future military interference with the commercial interests of the US or her allies or protectorates will be considered an act of war. Period. The Pentagon called the seizure a "provocation". Appropriate, but empty words.
Grade: C+

4) In the grand scheme of things, any relations with Iran should be halted and boycotted until an apology is issued.

I agree that this isn't the Tanker War. But 24+ hours in international shipping is a lot of money lost.

And, in particular in this thread, it is obvious to any citizens of American allies: if we are promised protection by the US, and we get pushed around, Americans will plainly tell us to go get ****ed. The Ukrainians learned it. Syrians have learned it (RED LINE). And now everyone else has learned it. Isolationism is back, baby.

The former was not an Iranian government action taken by anyone with international relations interests. It was a byproduct of the revolution.

The latter was actually a Mossad operation, ldo.

lol

Amazing.

Gamblor says Russians will get aggressive in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

DrawNone interprets that to mean Gamblor thinks Russia will start WW3.

Now uke_master is talking about reasons why ww3 won't break out.

what in the actual ****. why is it that stupid people think the only possible policy decisions are total all out aimless war aka BOMB THE BROWN PEOPLE, and talk it out because we all really love each other deep down?

You keep talking about the Marshall Islands like it's an important U.S. ally. You do get that it's actually a colony, right? A really, really unimportant colony--essentially the poor man's Guam. That anyone would view the U.S.'s willingness to go to war over the commercial interests of a foreign shipping company that happens to have registered ships in their flyspeck colony (because doing so is socially more acceptable and only marginally more burdensome than simply flying the Jolly Roger) as a litmus test for... anything, really... is totally ludicrous. An absolute joke. No one who lives on a continent or large island cares, at all, about the Marshall Islands, promises made to the Marshall Islands, promises made by the Marshall Islands, or anything else relating to the Marshall Islands. Not one single person.

Yes, but that is still a source of revenue for a country that is not exactly rich.

Yes. It is. But Saudi Arabia does not have a Compact of Association, and they're already at war with Iran in Yemen.

Incidentally (that means, "unrelated to the main issue", uke_master), thousands of civilians and children dead, zero protests in Europe or North America.

LOL

The Marshall Islands is not an important US ally. It's barely more than a used up nuclear testing ground and source for US military personnel.

The fact that you think you needed to say this means you have completely missed this entire thread. In fact, you proved my point exactly: that an agreement with the United States American is only meaningful until someone more important comes along.

To be fair, this entire thread would easily be missed.

Not saying protests are huge, but factcheck.orging it up. This is in front of the SA embassy in London. Obviously not big student protests or anything, seems to be largely Yeminis.



and this in New York

Yeah you really are making a strong point here. No reason to be concerned about the massive disparity in public reaction.

Btw

The LOL was at you being suddenly so concerned with civilian and children's deaths after losing thousands of dollars explaining to 2+2 plebs why Palestinian civilian deaths are just par for the course.

LOL