Iran Might Try to Disrupt Hormuz Oil Flow If Attacked by U.S.

Iran may be planning to share the pain of any U.S. attack with the world's oil markets. A strike against Iran's nuclear program would probably be met with an effort to choke off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, military planners and Middle East analysts say. The goal would be to trigger a market disruption that would force President George W. Bush to back off.

The Iranians hope the mere threat of such action may lead oil-consuming nations to pressure the U.S. to resolve the dispute short of a military confrontation. About 17 million barrels of oil, representing one-fifth of the world's consumption, is shipped through the strait every day. Roiling the markets would be part of a broader retaliation that would include terrorist attacks against U.S. forces or other interests in Iraq and worldwide, said Michael Eisenstadt, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Central Command analyst.

``They will not allow us to limit the conflict to `tit for tat' -- us hitting their nuclear facilities, and they restricted to hitting deployed American military,'' Eisenstadt said in an interview. General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said in a written statement to the House Armed Services Committee on March 15 that Iran is expanding naval bases along its shoreline and now has ``large quantities'' of small, fast- attack ships, many armed with torpedoes and Chinese-made high- speed missiles capable of firing from 10,000 yards.

``Iran's capabilities are focusing on disrupting oil traffic through the straits,'' Army Colonel Mark Tillman, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington and former Central Command planner, said in an interview. ``Why else would they have these things?'

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a_Aw9B.MGCuY&refer=home

The one and only way to exert control is to become energy independent. And that doesn't mean drilling to China in any grassy spot in the U.S. of A. Mandate solar tiles on the roof and hybrids in the garage. Put the windmills up in front of Teddy's summer house, John Kerry's, too. It's amazing how little energy you need if you build a house out of straw bales and go solar. The technology is there, but the oil companies and the government they've paid for is in the way.

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:rofl:

:cry:

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these would be big trouble too if launched en masse. They could definately sing a few tankers in the gulf.

Even if Iran doesn't want to do these things, it will do everything within its power to protect its assets, namely oil and natural gas. The way the US is acting, they are almost daring the Iranians to go to an extreme.

And here's where it gets bizarre....every time the US acts in the Global Game of Chess, Iran reacts and the US loses a few more pawns. Bush threatens Iran with a military response. The world reacts by pushing oil futures up to $72.00/barrel. Gas prices go up. People get pissed. Bush's numbers go down.

Bush tries some more hostile rhetoric. The stock market reacts and currency markets react and send the dollar down lower. = Bush's ratings go down again. Iran starts to make noises about pulling out its money out of European banks. The banks go into a seizure every time they do this. And they know this.

That's why I've posted a few times that this feels self-destructive, or even bordering 'suicidal' on the US's part.