Originally Posted by Flika

That’s the cost of being the dominant global power and having the most powerful and capable navy in the world. Do you really want China policing shipping lanes? We took on the role of policing the seas from the Royal Navy after World War II, and you can still see the remnants of that system today with the Strait of Gibraltar.

You can argue others should contribute more, and they probably should, but we don’t ensure free trade out of the kindness of our hearts. It’s the price of maintaining a system that benefits us more than anyone else. Between China, Japan, South Korea, and India, we do nearly $1 trillion in trade, it’s 100% in our interest to ensure that oil keeps flowing.

Iran has already signaled it wants oil traded through the Strait of Hormuz tied to the yuan and is effectively charging a “toll” for passage in yuan. That was a very deliberate choice, and meant to hurt the US as much as possible.

That said, we've backed ourselves into this corner with Iran. The physical and economic damage is done. We’re quickly leaving ourselves with very few options.