We have economic interests in the Gulf. They must be protected.
So we “preserve our interests” while we lose the country? How does that make sense? How relevant will “our interests” be as we lose the country itself?
Flagged in the marshall islands. That’s a pretty good deal for the company owning the ships; they get the protection of the US navy without actually paying taxes to help support the navy. When I was in the navy all the tankers were flagged to either panama or liberia. When the iranians started attacking tankers in the gulf during their war with iraq I thought the panamanian or liberian navies should have sailed to their defense.