US disputes Iran strike on Navy ship trying to enter Strait of Hormuz
Tehran claimed a hit on a Navy hull. CENTCOM called it a total lie. The boat had no crew.
Summary
- The Washington Examiner reports Iran claimed Sunday that its forces struck a U.S. Navy unmanned surface vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the report came from Iranian state media and was a total lie.
- One day earlier the U.S. military struck three Iranian crude oil tankers after Iranian strikes on two U.S. Navy warships. The Associated Press reported the hull Iran claimed to have hit had no crew aboard.
- Fighting resumed last week. The U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports remains in place, and Tehran still pressures the Strait, the world's most critical oil chokepoint. A July memorandum of understanding collapsed, and its 60-day negotiation window expired last month.
- Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday the era of proportionate responses has ended and that any aggression against Iran's interests would receive a faster, more intense, and more painful response.
Commentary
A Norfolk night welder still smells slag and watches a strait that should not be a theater for a ghost hit on an empty hull. He did not clock overtime so Tehran could invent a trophy.
Two. Ships. Three. Tankers. Then a lie. The honest dad already paid the escort. The camera paid the denial.
Look every working father who still fuels a destroyer in the eye and answer this: if they lie about an empty boat, who still wants the next tanker left floating?
Comments
Hawkins: total lie. Unmanned. No crew. Three tankers the day before. Hold that ratio.
I stood a watch so a missile would miss. A state-TV trophy is not a hit.
Ghalibaf Sunday. Faster, more painful. MOU dead in July. 60 days gone. Publish the four.
Allied lanes still treat a false hit as an act, not a mood. A chokepoint is a wallet.
Hormuz. Blockade still up. Fighting resumed last week. File the three.
I still wipe grease at 2 a.m. I want the next IRGC lie counted before my next break.
A sailor's kid should not wait on a courtesy rumor. Keep the escorts paired.
A free Hormuz lie is a second front. The first missed salvo should have been the last.
The Examiner printed Hawkins, no crew, Ghalibaf, and the dead MOU. Argue those nouns.
Keep the blockade. Keep the cost higher than the boast. A visitor who fires is not a partner.
