Hormuz Strait Word Games Ratcheting Up

A few days ago, we had an Iranian political bozo stirring up international concern with a threat to close down the Strait of Hormuz, followed, as noted in How many Iranian threats to "close the Strait of Hormuz" does it take to make oil prices jump?, by a near immediate denial of the intent of the Iranians to close the strait, now followed by Iranian war games in the Arabian Gulf showing their forces of various types, as they do nearly every year.

In case you are wondering, yes, the U.S. and its allies monitor these games.

In addition, the U.S. and its allies also occasionally rise to the bait tossed out by Iran's clowns and threaten that, surprise, surprise, any effort by Iran to really close the Strait of Hormuz would be "a very bad thing" and that could result in serious letters of warning, meetings of the UN Security Council and perhaps, maybe, at some point in all of Iran's forces being sent to the bottom of the ocean and/or painted pink and being made to live in a country like Iran. This week's counterpoint to Iran's point comes to us via the 5th Fleet via CNN, who are trying very hard to drum this up into a story:U.S. Navy won't tolerate 'disruption' through Strait of Hormuz from CNN.com

The U.S. Navy said Iran's threat to block the strategically and economically important Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable.

"The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain spokeswoman Cmdr. Amy Derrick Frost told reporters on Wednesday.

"Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated."

It's all part of the on-going war with Iran, being fought in many ways, but always asymmetrically by Iran, because, while its leadership may be a bunch of wild and crazy guys, they are not completely nuts.

USS John C.Stennis - Not exactly liking finding Waldo

UPDATE: To add to the fun, the Iranians report, apparently with great joy, they were able to "spot" an aircraft carrier the size of a city block transiting the Strait of Hormuz with its escorts. The real news story would have been if they were unable to see something akin to the Empire State Building floating by their Navy. Report here:

The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain across from Iran and guards the passageway, confirmed to ABC News that two of its ships did pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Dec.27 en route to the Arabian Sea where they are assisting operations in Afghanistan.

USS Mobile Bay

“The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) and guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG 53), conducted a planned, routine transit through the Strait of Hormuz, Dec. 27

UPDATE2: Okay, Iran got what it wanted Iranian threats push crude above $101/bbl in New York market. Now, if only we had a crude oil pipeline from Canada, this sort of thing wouldn't be so - - dramatically unnecessary.