Back in April, the US seized a Greek tanker carrying Iranian oil to China. Now the tanker is off the coast of Texas, and no one is willing to unload the oil:
U.S. energy companies are reportedly unwilling to unload about 800,000 barrels of seized Iranian oil from a Greek tanker sitting off the coast of Texas because of fears of reprisals from Tehran.
“Companies with any exposure whatsoever in the Persian Gulf are literally afraid to do it,” a Houston-based energy executive involved in the matter told The Wall Street Journal, citing worries “that the Iranians would take retribution against them.”
A basic problem for the US is that Saudi Arabia has made peace with Iran and the government of Syria, and relations between Iran and Russia have improved as well.
The ability of the US to play policeman in the Middle East are numbered. The same is true for the US occupation of the Syrian oil fields.
Iran nearly sank as US warship in 1987. Iranian missile technology has greatly improved since then.
Just put it in Strategic petroleum reserves…better than leaving tanker out there waiting for something to happen IMO. Again I’m just thinking out loud.
A danger in Washington is that the people who run things believe their own propaganda.
The US lost a simulated war with Iran in 2002, but then the Pentagon just changed the rule of the game to give the “right” outcome. Since 2002, Iran has greatly increased its production of high-tech missiles and drones that could destroy US ships and planes. In addition, Iran has powerful friends who may willing to support a proxy war against the US.
Washington cannot rig a real war like it did with a simulation.
