[Retain Mike]

Evidently, we have achieved energy independence, so why should we be the noes to shoulder the burden? Well the following quote from the article is significant to me. “What China will do in the region “is the million-dollar question” when it comes to future operations in the Persian Gulf. “China only now is building out the capability” to sustain long-term escort operations that’s bolstered by Beijing’s new naval base in Djibouti.”

[Psalm 73]

I think, though, that our active carriers need to be on station somewhere.

So the "cost" is negligible - they need to be out and training anyway.

[The Pack Knight]

.... In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.

[entropy12]

Why not borrow more to protect oil flow from the Gulf to China & Japan & SE Asia & South Asia? After all China & Japan are eager to lend us more! /Facetious

[Mariner]

With airfields all around and everything within shooting distance, there is no reason for a CBG to be there. Maybe cruise into the Arabian sea occasionally for ops, but certainly not the Gulf. Especially the Strait of Hormuz.

Of course it’s an effective triple-dog-dare, spectacular even.

The entire gulf can be protected with shore based air power, 2 diesel boats, 6 corvettes and 4 frigates.

And if every tanker cannot be protected every hour, it’s adequate deterrent.

[sheehan]

We need to build a Strategic Gasoline Reserve and boost refining capacity across the country to lessen the real everyday short-term impacts of oil price fluctuations due to instability in Gulf.

[Zhang Fei]

[Evidently, we have achieved energy independence]

---

Energy independence would involve not using oil at all. Given that there’s more or less a single global price for oil, if oil prices go to $150, our gasoline prices go to $6 a gallon. Like it or not, we need global supplies to flow to keep oil prices low. Would we feel less pain than Europe if oil went to $150? Sure. But we’d still feel a lot of pain.

[Billthedrill]

Lots of calculator buttons clicking on this one - at what point does a carrier group presence there become more expensive than U.S. interests warrant? There's quite a bit more to it than just the oil market, namely the opposition of Iranian expansionism and exportation of armed revolution, given that these dovetail with an ongoing program to develop nuclear weapons and delivery capabilities. As to the latter two in particular, it has long been a major bone of contention with the EU as to their unwillingness to support sanctions and their willingness to pursue economic relations given that they are directly threatened by those programs and the U.S. is not (at least so long as the Iranians lack a proven ICBM).

At the moment it appears that containment is worth the cost, but that will not always be true given the rapidly changing political environment in the Middle East and Europe, and to a lesser degree Asia and the U.S. The U.S. is not energy independent yet, although we could be if we are willing to incur the considerable cost, but we are an oil exporting nation now, hence insulated from oil price volatility to a great degree. That changes Iran's strategic alignment, because a spike in oil prices now benefits the Great Satan as well as Iran. That wasn't true before, and it constitutes the loss of their principal strategic weapon that their nuclear weapons programs promise to replace, should those be allowed to come to fruition. Lots of chips on the table here.

The Europeans could break this deadlock, and so could the Iranians, but neither will, at least at present. Either one could change very rapidly.

[rrrod]

Iran/Russia need to constantly checked.