It's not really all that interesting that mining the straits checks the US Navy. The Persian Gulf generally is one of the most constrained operating environments on Earth for any blue water navy, and the straits themselves might be the defining textbook example of a naval area denial problem.
What's surprising isn't that Iran and the Gulf States have massive leverage against naval powers operating in the Gulf. Nobody is surprised that the USN can't just plow warships through the straits. What's surprising is that the USN ever would have allowed themselves to be put into this position to begin with.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 17.3 ms ] threadWhat's surprising isn't that Iran and the Gulf States have massive leverage against naval powers operating in the Gulf. Nobody is surprised that the USN can't just plow warships through the straits. What's surprising is that the USN ever would have allowed themselves to be put into this position to begin with.