The finger of land that reaches into the Straits of Hormuz across from Iran is part of Oman. That would be an ideal location for defense of the Straits.
Wikipedia says Oman is a sultanate formerly allied w Britain. Now an ally of Iran.
Is defense of the Straits from Oman feasible? Any one know more?
I doubt it. It’s pretty easy to hit an oil tanker with a missile – even if you put boots on the ground in Iran to secure the shoreline of the Straits.
intercst
Defending against incoming from ships in the middle of a narrow passage posses extra risk. Land based defenses can be much more numerous and highly effective. The issue is can permission be negotiated to install them.
Then ships can focus on water borne threats like mines and underwater drones.
And of course, we are now calling on the “obsolete” “leeches” in NATO to come to our aid.
Yes, and those leeches need the oil.
Well, Newt has an idea. Use nuclear weapons to build a canal thru the tip of UAE so ships won’t have to traverse the Straits. Of course the words “nuclear bombs” and the Middle East are not exactly sympatico most places. In fact, they’re funny in a satire magazine, which Newt seems to have missed:
In March 2026, Gingrich shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) in which he quoted a passage from an article he linked to: "Instead of fighting over a 21-mile-wide bottleneck forever, we cut a new channel through friendly territory". The quoted passage continued: "A dozen thermonuclear detonations and you've got a waterway wider than the Panama Canal, deeper than the Suez, and safe from Iranian attacks".I
The article Gingrich linked to on the ChinaTalk Substack was satirical, a fact later highlighted by a Community Note on his post. The satirical open letter within the article even contained a line near the end stating, “The views expressed above do not necessarily represent those of anyone with brain cells”. Gingrich, however, appeared to have missed the joke and shared the idea as a serious geopolitical strategy for bypassing the Strait of Hormuz during heightened tensions with Iran.
Personally, I’m thinking that moving shipping over by a few miles into an even narrower channel which they must traverse at even slower speeds might not be a viable solution, but what do I know? I’m not a former Speaker of the House with multiple art degrees to my credit.
Wow, not even an equivocation in there:
“This war has nothing to do with NATO. It’s not NATO’s war,” Stefan Kornelius, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, told reporters in Berlin on Monday. “NATO is a defensive alliance, an alliance for the defense of its territory,” he added.
…
“As long as this war continues, there will be no involvement, not even in an option to keep the Strait of Hormuz open by military means,” Kornelius said, adding that he was not aware of an official request by the U.S. government to Germany to take part in such a mission.
“I would also like to remind you that the U.S. and Israel did not consult us before the war, and that Washington explicitly stated at the start of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired,” Kornelius said.
Germany’s Merz was initially far more supportive of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran than many of his European peers.
“Only I can fix it.”
Ok, fix it.
Finnish MEP
Then outside the LSE
Antimemetics for some fun, Scifi
An Israeli who meets Arabs online and he quotes the Quran.
Hamas would never do this to your face.
OFW
Kuwaiti
Relevant update:
Winning friends by the minute.
OK, so the US drops out of Nato. Can Nato defend itself? Trump says doubtful. Putin is not afraid of that Nato.
Why would the US drop out of NATO? There is no NATO country in existence that has called on NATO more than the US.
Threats of leaving NATO are not the same thing as actually leaving NATO.
Some think Nato should pay its own bills. US would love to save its contribution.
::chuckle:: The US would gladly pay double today if they could get NATO to act outside of its defensive charter and help attack Iran.
Again, saber-rattling isn’t the same as actually doing. We continue to tolerate their underpayment because the alternative is worse.
Yep, as usual either we hang together or apart. Right now apart seems to be the word of the day.
No. NATO is a defensive organization. Our adventures in Iran are NOT defensive in nature. There is no basis to call on NATO to join this conflict. We were not attacked. Some pols claiming such was eminent is not sufficient.
By contrast - when we went into Kuwait, we called on a “coalition of the willing.” We did not call on NATO as there was no reason for NATO to respond.
By contrast - when we were attacked (this is the important part) on 9/11, we became the first and only country to invoke Article 5 of NATO - and NATO responded.
But here is the most important part….
The administration HAS NOT INVOKED ARTICLE 5 for Iran. I will leave it to you to determine why they are calling on NATO to act, but have refused the one method that would officially ask NATO to respond.
The way the war in Ukraine is going maybe NATO is no longer needed.
The Captain
…and my Russian friends write me that Putin is now more afraid of young lions of the jungle law politics/economics he has made of Russia coming after him, its creator, as he is of Ukraine shooting a drone up his ahem….
Straits of Hormuz is a major source of oil to Europe. They do have an interest.
I notice the Norway ETF is doing well. They get oil from the North Sea. Probably finding it more profitable. And like Cuba a Europe starved for oil is in trouble. They mist pay any price to get it from somewhere better than shutting down.
