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Home » Day one of CENTCOM’s action at the Strait of Hormuz …

Day one of CENTCOM’s action at the Strait of Hormuz …

The New Neo Posted on by

… seems to be going well so far:

CENTCOM’s update stated, “More than 10,000 U.S. Sailors, Marines, and Airmen along with over a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft are executing the mission to blockade ships entering and departing Iranian ports.” It proudly affirmed, “During the first 24 hours, no ships made it past the U.S. blockade and 6 merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around to re-enter an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.”

It seems to me the need for this action had been anticipated, because unless I’m mistaken the troops and ships have been more or less at the ready for a while and were nearby.

Comments

Day one of CENTCOM’s action at the Strait of Hormuz … — 28 Comments

  1. I think this is checkmate, bankrupting the regime in a matter of a couple of weeks, obviating the need for any further kinetic action. There is an article by Miad Maleck
    that shows why:

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/2043456536454836467.html

    If this happens either the Army or the citizens (or both) may rise up and destroy the IRGC. Lets hope so.

    Unless the regime attacks our Navy–then its Katie bar the door.

  2. Crickets from CC™-R.

    President Trump and the Department of War have a plan and means to execute it.

    Inconceivable.

    Xi, Vladdy, and the Cardboard mullahs (IRGC?) are most displeased. As are the democrats/leftists.

  3. Mine clearing vessels were on their way April 8. They haven’t arrived yet but I think preparations for their arrival have been made, so likely there is a schedule for all these things. As to the blockade itself, I have no idea but suspect there was a contingency plan made some time ago.

  4. The idea some people had that Trump & Co. suddenly smote their foreheads and cried, “Whoa! We forgot all about Hormuz” always struck me as bogus.

  7. A good post at Hot Air covers a lot of territory, and also makes a point about something I haven’ seen elsewhere (there are a YUUUGE number of people writing on the internet!!).
    A couple of days ago there was a brief discussion among Neophiles as to why the Middle East states had not already built up their pipelines to route oil around Iran’s control.

    Well, it seems like some of them had done exactly that.
    And President Trump knew all about it.

    https://hotair.com/generalissimo/2026/04/13/donald-trumps-key-to-defeating-the-iranian-regime-treat-them-like-democrats-n3813827

    By announcing the Strait is closed for real this time to Iranian-related commercial traffic, and the United States having an actual naval presence to enforce it, Kharg Island has become the loneliest Route 66 gas station after the interstate came to steer people away from it.

    Iran already has no money. Their currency is far less valuable than the paper on which it is printed, and they have no meaningful access to the international banking system. Their economy is currently suffering 71% inflation due to the conflict. Now, it cannot export oil, which is 90% of the revenue, into the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it can no longer charge its fantasy toll on Larak Island for any other ship going through the hairpin curve.

    So the question becomes, why now? Why didn’t this happen weeks ago? As it turns out, in war, as in deal negotiations, timing is everything.

    A couple of weeks ago, Saudi Arabia was spinning up their East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz entirely, to its capacity of 7 million barrels per day. It was estimated that it would take months, maybe years, to get to full capacity. The regime in Tehran was counting on that, actually, because that would give them more perceived leverage in the Strait.

    Coinciding quite nicely with Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. is now blockading Iranian-based traffic through the Strait, the pipeline has reached 100% oil flow. Either their workers were fibbing on how long it would take, or they’re the busiest beavers in the Middle East.

    And that’s not the only workaround to traversing the Strait currently underway. The market self-corrects and creates alternatives out of necessity. Fanatical eschatological Iranian terrorists are that necessity. And part of that self-correction is numerous plans in the works to build and install more pipelines, some even through Israel, to the Mediterranean.

    With Saudi Arabia’s pipeline at peak performance, the pressure on opening the Strait lessens every day that the market is re-orienting itself for a post-Strait world. In short, the more the regimists in Tehran remain defiant, the more golden geese they’re trying to hold for ransom are flying away in search of safer wetlands.

    A little strategic misdirection by the Saudis, perhaps?

  9. So what are the panican podcaster cabal going to do when this turns out to be wildly successful? Tucker/Megan/MTG/Jones?

  12. Brevity is the soul of wit

    They will squirrel as is their want

    The coverage earlier in the day was devoid of context

    As in the elphis had been put on standby
    Another two ships were allowed after inspections

  14. Ain’t over yet…but if it’s a disaster they’ll blame da Jooz…

    Guaranteed.

    (For that matter, if it’s a roaring success…they’ll also blame da Jooz.)

  16. Mike Plaiss:

    That truth saved a young woman I worked with, Mair P. Her father, an Army sergeant, told her that growing up. She remembered it when stranded, out of food, in the back country of Yosemite waiting for rescue from a late summer blizzard, in 1979.

  17. AesopFan used the term “Neophiles”. This is the first I’ve seen it, but I love it. I’ve been reading this blog for over 20 years, longer than anything besides Slashdot and Hacker News.

    I still think the whole Iran situation could have gone (and still can go) wrong in a whole bunch of different ways, but things seem to be working out well. Trump always seems to have taken everything into account, despite the fact that he often appears not to have.

  22. I can’t take credit for coining “Neophiles,” as I lifted it from some other commenter here. However, it did appeal to me as a good shorthand for “the great group of commenters here at the best blog in the internet universe bar none.”

  23. @neo: Maybe I should sell “Neophile” T-shirts.

    None Dare Call It Merch.

    Bring it on!

  24. I would buy that shirt! I too have been here for near-on 20 years… I just don’t comment much these days.

  25. AesopFan on April 15, 2026 at 10:33 pm:
    “… at the best blog in the internet universe bar none.”
    But even the internet universe has black holes, dark matter, and anti-light.
    So we come here for the Sol and soul of light. And for some, the dancing soles.

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