Our Government isn’t talking about world supply oil if the Strait of Hormuz were blockaded ?
Sep 30, 2009
in
Hurricane
Why aren’t our political leaders speaking out about this potential problem !
A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could cause a hurricane Katrina in every major U.S. city and yet our so called political leaders aren’t talking about this potentially deadly problem.
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2 comments
gosam777 on September 30, 2009 at 7:04 pm
"When we would sail the USS Iowa down the Strait of Hormuz [to protect oil tankers] during the Iran-Iraq War, all of southern Iran would go quiet."–Frederick Stakelbeck, Jr.
Aug 5, 2008
This is not the first time the Iranians have threatened to shut down the strait as retaliation for any military strike on their nuclear program. Responding to those threats in June, Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff said during a press conference at the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain: "No one will close the Strait of Hormuz. They are not going to close it because they will not be allowed to."
That said, many analysts say Iran has the ability to temporarily disrupt the Strait of Hormuz, a passageway whence one fifth of the world’s oil is shipped every day destined to the markets of China and East Asia.
An official for Central Command yesterday who asked not to be identified, however, said the Iranians had the capacity to wage a form of terrorism on the high seas and target commercial shipping vessels. "As to their claim they can close the straits, they could certainly have the capability to disrupt commercial activity in the strait. We do not assess them as capable of sustaining that disruption."
A former CIA Middle East analyst and a scholar at the Brookings Institution, Kenneth Pollack, said he believed that Iran’s threats to close the Strait of Hormuz were "hollow." "In a no-holds-barred fight with the United States Navy and Air Force, Iran might be able to inflict some painful losses, but its doom would be certain." Mr. Pollack added: "In the interim, Iran might be able to frighten commercial traffic away from the straits for a matter of days or even a few weeks. It might also take down an American warship or two. However, neither would be likely to have a lasting impact on global oil supplies or the overall military balance. And in the end, Iran’s military capacities would be crippled."
A senior market analyst at Alaron Trading, a commodity brokerage firm, Phil Flynn, said a confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz could raise the price of a barrel of oil by ten dollars. "We will assess if this is a onetime attack, an ongoing war, will the straits be reopened? A lot of this is speculation, when it would happen, how bad it would be," Mr. Flynn said. He added: "If there was some kind of attack, it would be military suicide for Iran if they did this. There would be a swift retaliation one way or another. Too many countries want those straits to remain open."
Ron Rolling Thunder on September 30, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Perhaps these questions should be put to the politicians instead of these boards. When is the last time you wrote a letter to your Senator and Representative?