Personally, I almost look forward to oil going to $200 or so. ...maybe even rationing again. Maybe it will straighten us all out and help us to find a will to fight. Freight fuel prices from that will virtually put a stop to unnecessary imports and remove incentives to appease the enemy. Call me cynical, but I think that if push ever came to shove, we'd not merely "appease" the enemy -- we'd cave to the enemy.
If ever The Caliphate were to issue us terms of surrender, and tell us what they would do to us if we refused their generous offer (i.e., outright dhimmitude etc.), we'd bark and bluster -- for just long enough for "our leaders" to pack their bags and come up with a "plausible" way to break the news to us. Then, we'd cave.
Remember, at least some analysts in the CIA have for some time been of the belief that there are tactical nukes already deployed within the continental USA. A credible threat is definitely within the realm of possibility -- especially if "coordinated" with our Chinese "friends."
This crap in the gulf over the weekend really gives me the creeps. Last I heard we'd floated a major percentage of our naval forces up that way, and it would be trivial for Iran to block the narrow shipping lanes in the Straits. What were they thinking when they ordered those ships up there? Talk about boxed-in if the balloon goes up!
Gee, I wonder what China might like to do, if they knew that we were trapped in the gulf, unable to get out for the forseeable future?
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This crap in the gulf over the weekend really gives me the creeps. Last I heard we'd floated a major percentage of our naval forces up that way, and it would be trivial for Iran to block the narrow shipping lanes in the Straits."
It wouldn't be trivial. But it could be done, if our Navy didn't work to stop it.
Iran unable to block Hormuz
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621693/posts
I wouldn't say "unable," as the author did, either, but it would be a difficult military task for the Iranians to pull off. ...requires a will by our leadership to stop it, and probably, a willingness to go into Iran, if need be.
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Gee, I wonder what China might like to do, if they knew that we were trapped in the gulf, unable to get out for the forseeable future?""
Here are some of my scrambled thoughts. In my opinion, if our military forces got really busy with Iran, China might try to take her first step in grabbing ports (and ocean routes with those), Taiwan probably being the first (and an eye toward the Indian Ocean). We would have to spare probably about three carrier groups just to stop that, if the PLA were very determined to do it. We have twelve carrier groups, last I saw in public news. But then Russia is wanting to take some of her satellites (nearby nations) again, too. Now that could present a problem.
We have quite a Navy. But we're a little short on ground forces for going into several theaters, unless we start drafting. Most people in both political parties are terrified of the idea of a draft. Oh, and some of our most important naval ships are a little on the large side. Duncan Hunter was wanting more small, fast, stealthy ships with weapons on them. ...reason for that is, the Chinese military leadership got the notion a while back of making awful enormous numbers of missiles to launch at our bigger ships. And, of course, there was the incident of the Chinese submarine surfacing next to one of our carriers recently. I don't know how that happened.
Some of the old commanders of the Vietnam years told me over the years since then, that the Chinese aren't a threat, because they're not very smart. I wonder if we haven't been a little on the prideful side for a few decades.