The media and this board declared operation Freedom or whatever it was called a failure before it started. Looks like it wasn't - what nobody saw coming was the Navy has evidently deployed a fair number of autonomous warships and drones and they're using them as escorts.

There is no siege in history that has been 100% effective. We got convoys through the Atlantic in World War II in spite of the wolf-packs. Japan managed to keep itself supplied even though we have mastery in the Pacific for the last two years of that war.

Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip was pretty effective, yet failed to achieve its goals. Russia has tried siege tactics in several Ukrainian cities, yet they still stand - and fight. Not to put too fine a point on it, but all the might of the Federal Government couldn’t stop the flow of liquor coming in from Canada during Prohibition, or marijuana from Mexico during the 1970’s.

Any siege that cuts off 97-98% of intended traffic has to be a great success, yet here we are with almost no oil (comparitively) flowing through the Strait, and threats entirely ineffective (and likely to produce worse results if Iran targets neighboring countries’ oil infrastructure - as they have already shown a willingness and ability to do.)

This is a loss. It’s a loss because Trump and Hegseth are wedded to the “me have big guns, therefore you lose” mindset, and that’s not how it always (or even frequently) plays out. See: Afghanistan (both the US and Russia). Vietnam (both the US and France). Ukraine. There are lots more throughout history. The Spanish Empire didn’t collapse for lack of guns, nor the Ottoman, nor lots of others.