larry johnson writes about the latest goings on in 'our' straits of hormuz; 

 

Somebody should tell the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that the Strait of Hormuz is closed for business — American business, that is, and completely under control. President Trump has been saying so for weeks. On August 11 he informed the world by Truth Social that the United States has “total control” of the strait and “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT,” the naval blockade a “wall of steel” against which “there is nothing Iran can do.” On August 14 he went further: “we own the Hormuz Strait,” letting boats through only “if we want them to come in,” and promised, with a chuckle, to soon declare the waterway a territory of the United States. As recently as three days ago the White House published a release titled “President Trump Was Right: America Controls the Strait of Hormuz,” a tidy chronology of the President assuring reporters the strait is open, functioning, and awash in oil.

The IRGC, evidently, does not subscribe to the newsletter. On Sunday, US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island — the first known American attack on Iranian soil since late July — because, a US official told Al Jazeera and Reuters, Guard units were observed preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the strait the United States supposedly owns. One is left to wonder how Tehran plans to mine a waterway it does not control, into which it is not permitted to bring so much as a boat. The wall of steel, it seems, requires periodic bombing to stay upright.

Iran’s Tasnim agency called it a drone strike. The IRGC confirmed dead and wounded, soldiers and civilians, and promised to answer. The Washington Post and US News carried the same account within hours. Take the official rationale at face value and the strike is narrow, even routine: a counter-mining action to keep the strait open. But the target, the timing, and the diplomacy running underneath the war suggest a second reading worth putting on the table — one considerably less flattering to the “we own it” thesis.............more.........