If the US were to suffer a loss, and then take on an overly defensive posture with our naval forces, we'd be owning a very expensive white elephant, floating in a bay somewhere. And the world's shipping lanes would be largely unprotected.
A strong leader would assert our presence before, during, and after a military engagement. But I don't see a strong leader around here.
I wouldn’t put it past them to sink a nuke in the straights, and use it as a mine.
John McCain gave it a shot. “;^O
We lost lots of ships in WWII.
The British lose the destroyer HMS Sheffield in the Falkland’s war against Argentina. It’s entirely possible that the Iranians could manage a similar “lucky” attack.
Since World War Two, only six major US warships have been heavily damaged by enemy action (there were others that only suffered light damage). Three were damaged by mines (frigate Samuel B. Roberts during the Tanker Wars, and cruiser Princeton and amphibious assault ship Tripoli during Operation Desert Storm), two were hit by air attack (destroyer Higbee off Vietnam and frigate Stark during the Tanker Wars), and one by suicide boat (destroyer Cole in the Port of Aden). Not included in this list are the intelligence ships Pueblo (captured by North Korea) and Liberty, which was attacked and nearly sunk by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats during the Six Days War.
???Ever hear of WWII?
You should be thinking "Battle of Salamis." This is what the Iranians are attempting to do, IMO. Lure the large US blue water fleet close to the coast so that they can whack them with all manner of asymmetrical threats - everything from anti-ship missles, mines and agile speedboats.
The USN wargamed this a few years ago by putting a Marine general in charge of the Green Force (Iran). The USN lost by its own assessment of the wargame. Not saying that this will happen in real life. One of the reasons that you wargame is to expose holes in you own warplan. Evidently the Marine, thinking unconventionally, did just that.