Subject: Hegseth's comments / global blockade
So today General Caine came out and said that the blockade is going to go global: what that means is that Iran's shadow fleet - which was always illegal and always subject to search and seizure by anyone willing to do it - is now on notice that when we find them, we take them.

“In addition to enforcing the blockade, all Iranian vessels, vessels with active OFAC sanctions, and vessels suspected of carrying contraband, are subject to belligerent right to visit and search,” the notice said, referring to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. “These vessels, regardless of location, are subject to visit, board, search, and seizure.”

For those who want to start talking about the 'Pirate king', go ahead, but you should understand that maritime law allows this. (You can't fake a country's flag on a vessel and it's against all sorts of maritime laws to lie about/obfuscate your destination and routes).

For those who want to insist that there's no plan, you might want to start assembling the puzzle pieces in your mind about what the administration has been doing. Venezuela. Iran. Panama. Straits of Malacca. F-47. The Navy's massive ship order. Rare Earth minerals. Zero foreign dependence on energy. Reshoring manufacturing. Ask yourself why that might be valuable. Ask yourself why we might need to do this and then ask yourself what if we hadn't done any of it.

Hegseth today:
Our capabilities are not the same, our military and yours. Remember, this is not a fair fight. And we know what military assets you are moving, where you are moving them to. While you are digging out, which is exactly what you are doing, digging out of bombed-out and devastated facilities, we are only getting stronger. You are digging out your remaining launchers and missiles with no ability to replace them. You have no defense industry, no ability to replenish your offensive or defensive capabilities. You only have what you have. You know that. And we know that. You can move things around, but you can't actually rebuild. You can dig out for now, but you can't reconstitute.

But we can. We are reloading with more power than ever before, and better intelligence, even more importantly, better intelligence than ever before, as you expose yourself with your movement to our watchful eye. We are locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation, and on your energy industry. We'd rather not have to do it, but we're ready to go at the command of our President and at the push of a button.

These are all simple statements of fact. We have satellites overhead. Drones in the air. Mossad on the ground. Iranian citizens calling us up and telling us things. Kurds over Iran's borders. And likely other things.

This isn't a fair fight. I'm not sure why in some minds Iran was lifted up to this mythical position of being able to go toe-to-toe with us. That was never in their cards. I do understand the handicap of not understanding the basic calculus of move/countermove that limits the thinking of some: creative problem solving is something people have or they don't.

At any rate. Students of history will understand what's happening as a variant of the Nixon/Henry Kissinger stratagem of getting the North Vietnamese to the Paris peace talks.