1). “Why the U.S. Navy Can’t Control Iran’s Hormuz — Even Allies Said No”, Mar 18, 2026, Anon, Global Conflict Signals, duration of video 16:48, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2). “Why 6,000 Iranian Mines Are a Nightmare for the U.S. Navy in Hormuz”, Mar 19, 2026, Anon, Global Conflict Signals, duration of video 17:34, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
3). “Why the US Navy Can’t Stop Mines in the Strait of Hormuz”, Mar 20, 2026, Lucas, WW2 with Lucas, duration of video 16:40, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
4). “USS Wasp Leads Massive Marine Deployment to the Strait of Hormuz Amid Rising Tensions”, Mar 18, 2026, Anon, U.S. Current Affairs, duration of video 8:45, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
5). “US sending roughly 4,500 more troops to Middle East, officials say”, Mar 20, 2026, CNN, duration of video 10:02, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
6). “U.S. sending USS Tripoli, thousands of Marines to Middle East”, Mar 13, 2026, Josephine Walker & Barak Ravid, Axios, at < https://www.axios.com/2026/03/
7). “What Happens After USS Tripoli Reaches the Strait of Hormuz?”, Mar 18, 2026, Anon, Shipline, duration of video 9:49, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
~~ recommended by desmond ~~
Introduction by desmond: It could not have been a surprise to serious military planners (even if it was a surprise to Trump and his handlers / advisors) that Iran acted to close the Strait of Hormuz to ships associated with the U.S. or its Allies. Tankers bound for India or China are exempted and have been moving through the Strait freely. In Item 1)., “Why the U.S. Navy Can’t ….”; and Item 2)., “Why 6,000 Iranian Mines ….”, the basic issues about keeping the Strait Open for U.S. affiliated shipping are discussed. The Iranians have prepared for decades now, following the experiences they had in the Iraqi / Kuwaiti Wars in the mid 1980s, 2008, 2011/2012, 2018/2019 and attacks on tankers in 2019, to make any U.S. Navy attempt to keep the Straits open for U.S. affiliated shipping so dangerous and expensive that the Navy will not even attempt it. Back during the various confrontations up through 2019, the U.S. Navy still sent Super Aircraft Carriers into the Persian Gulf, despite protestations by Iran. Changes in military technology, and the actual state of war between Iran and the U.S., have made moving Super Aircraft Carriers into the Persian Gulf now unthinkable. (For more detailed discussions see “The Strait of Hormuz: A Timeline of Tensions: The narrow Persian Gulf waterway has been a contested choke point for centuries”, Mar 13, 2026, David Roos, History.com, at < https://www.history.com/
Item 3)., “Why the US Navy Can’t ….”, discusses the fact that mine clearing, an action that the U.S. Navy cannot really handle at all well, used to use a flotilla of 14 wooden ships purpose built for that task in the 1980s. Four of those ships were stationed in Middle East and had cleared mines out of the Strait of Hormuz and other places in the region. They were decommissioned in 2025 and sent to a scrapyard in Philadelphia. Four of those ships still exist and are stationed in the Far East in Singapore. These effective minesweepers (that do not trigger mines, all of which use magnetic fields of metal ships) would be useful in the Middle East along with any of the four from Philadelphia that could still be rehabilitated.
The closure to most shipping traffic has caused spikes in Oil and Natural Gas prices as well as other products such as fertilizer now needed for spring planting in the Northern Hemisphere (despite the exemption of Chinese, Indian, and other BRICS countries shipping, actual passage of tankers and other cargo ships through the Strait has been greatly reduced by over 95% in fact). Trump, and his various chicken-hawk jingo advisors, think they can force the issue by sending some contingents of working class “poverty draft” ground troops, whom they privately despise but publicly attempt to glorify, to pull their chestnuts out of the fire in Iran. Some indications of the decision to use ground troops (boots on the ground in the terminology of the jingoes and chickenhawks) are discussed in Item 4)., “USS Wasp Leads Massive ….”; Item 5)., “US sending roughly 4,500 ….”; and Item 6)., “U.S. sending USS Tripoli, ….”. The U.S.S. Wasp and the U.S.S. Tripoli are both Amphibious Assault Ships; that are used by The U.S. Marines to attack places that do not have friendly port facilities. The Tripoli left East Asia for the Middle East about a week ago with 2,250 combat troops and about 3,000+ support troops. The Wasp left the U.S. in the past couple of days with a very similar amount of troops and equipment.
The troops being sent on these two ships are earmarked for some sort of military assault that the Trump Regime hopes will free up the Strait of Hormuz. There are also reports of 5,000 other ground troops that have been airlifted into the area using C-130 air cargo planes (See, “U.S. Deploys 5,000 Marines to Middle East in Major KC-130J Operation”, Mar 21, 2026, Anon, U.S. Current Affairs, duration of video 8:14, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Clearly the Fascist Forces in the U.S. are gearing up for a fight to vanquish most of us and impose their horrific Billionaire dictated Theocratic and Hard-Line Fascist agenda on the general population. They do not have the amount of backing necessary to do this in any other way than by imposing it by force, and time is working against them in a variety of ways. Therefore the upcoming “No Kings Day” on March 28th is more important than ever. The Trump Regime posted a threat to impose Harsh ICE controls over all airports starting on tomorrow, Monday, March 23rd. In addition in a few days American military forces will be committed to some sort of an extremely dangerous and risky ground attack on Iran; to try to force the Iranians to permit U.S. Associated shipping to pass freely. I certainly doubt that the Iranians will knuckle under to the U.S. Far-Right Regime, we should not do so either.
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1). “Why the U.S. Navy Can’t Control Iran’s Hormuz — Even Allies Said No”, Mar 18, 2026, Anon, Global Conflict Signals, duration of video 16:48, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2). “Why 6,000 Iranian Mines Are a Nightmare for the U.S. Navy in Hormuz”, Mar 19, 2026, Anon, Global Conflict Signals, duration of video 17:34, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
3). “Why the US Navy Can’t Stop Mines in the Strait of Hormuz”, Mar 20, 2026, Lucas, WW2 with Lucas, duration of video 16:40, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
4). “USS Wasp Leads Massive Marine Deployment to the Strait of Hormuz Amid Rising Tensions”, Mar 18, 2026, Anon, U.S. Current Affairs, duration of video 8:45, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
5). “US sending roughly 4,500 more troops to Middle East, officials say”, Mar 20, 2026, CNN, duration of video 10:02, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Pentagon sends USS Tripoli, thousands of Marines to Middle East
- The U.S. official said U.S. Central Command asked for the new force in order to have more options for military operations against Iran.
- The Marine expeditionary unit will be able to conduct ground operations if ordered. The U.S. official declined to comment on that possibility.
Driving the news: The Marine expeditionary force is moving into the region as Iran continues to target traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, driving up global oil, shipping and insurance prices.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that U.S. Navy escorts for commercial ships in the Strait could begin "soon."
- Bessent said the disruptions have already cost the U.S. $11 billion.
- Sources with knowledge said that before such escorts would begin, the U.S. military is planning potential operations for taking out land-based anti-ship missiles that the Iranians have deployed in the Strait area.
13 U.S. military members have died in the conflict as of Friday, following the crash of a refueling tanker aircraft in Iraq.
What they're saying: "We're on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before," Hegseth insisted in a news conference Friday.
- "But it's not just that Iran doesn't have a functioning Air Force, or that their entire Navy is at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, or their missile force is shrinking daily."
- "They also don't have the ability to build more. That's the most important component I'd like to emphasize today," he said.
- Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine said that U.S. Central Command will continue to "destroy the Iranian Navy to ensure freedom of navigation, and this means going after Iran's mine-laying capability and destroying their ability to attack commercial vessels."
Zoom in: The entire Tripoli Expeditionary Strike Group includes the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, the USS Tripoli, guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls, and guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta.
- The Pentagon did not respond to Axios' request for comment.
Go deeper: Scoop: Trump claimed in G7 call that Iran is "about to surrender"
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7). “What Happens After USS Tripoli Reaches the Strait of Hormuz?”, Mar 18, 2026, Anon, Shipline, duration of video 9:49, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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