>Last time Iran attacked a US warship they lost half their navy in eight hours.

It’s truly weird how much I see this mindless comment exactly duplicated with zero context.

Context: the Iranian Navy consisted of very few ships.

It's a good meme with a good story that goes viral in every community where this kind of story can go viral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5v6hlRyeHE

Source please? I'd like to read more about this.

Because according to wikipedia- 5 Iranian ships were sunk during Operating Praying Mantis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis

Three of those are "speedboats" (these sorts of things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashura-class_speedboat), and one's a "gunboat".

Only one of the five vessels (the frigate) lost would typically be called a "ship".

Yeah. It also says that the US showed mercy after hitting the other frigate with a 500lb bomb and allowed it to limp away. They've edited their post- they originally claimed Iran had two ships in their navy.

Almost as if it were coordinated

Based on current accounts, it seems that the adversaries of the US have evolved much that the US can’t pull stuff it pulled before. That and they are leveraging asymmetric warfare as much as they can.

Why are we in the area to begin with, inserting ourselves into these volatile conflict zones? We keep doing that and then acting surprised when we get caught in the crossfire =/

How much are you personally paying for transportation (powered by petroleum), energy (whether home heating oil, or inexpensive electricity made possible by an energy market whose rock-bottom price depends on petrochemicals being pumped out of the ground), plastic tchotchkes (which depend on petrochemicals being inexpensive)?

The US does not depend on this lane though. China and Europe do, however.

If prices become higher in China/Europe it’ll lead to prices being higher by us. It’s a global economy where large impact in China/Europe will impact the states to some extent.

Not enough, if it's just enabling continuous proxy wars abraod.

They've already shot down multiple ballistic missiles / drones targeting Israel and is a counter balance so Hezbollah and Syrian militias don't get involved which will create a situation where a much bigger US response will be needed. Deterrence usually reduces conflict more than instigates it.

They are also protecting commercial civilian ships being targeted. China has warships there too and they didn't bother.

Houthi are going after Israeli stuff anyway and only targeting the US because they completely neuter their capabilities. If the US isn't there missiles will still be flying over the Red Sea and civilian ships being hijacked.

Force projection to keep the shipping lanes open for global commerce in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.

> We keep doing that and then acting surprised when we get caught in the crossfire

Wouldn't the presence of US naval vessels in the area indicate that it's not a surprise?

Our warships were apparently (escorting? defending? wink wink? wasn't super clear to me) the Israeli merchant vessels. They weren't exactly neutral bystanders, especially not to Israel's enemies.

They were there 'cause the US knew they'd be needed. I don't think they've been anything besides shooting down drones attacking shipping... but they don't really exist to be neutral bystanders.

Yeah, but we don't get to play both sides of that narrative. Either we stay out of it and mind our own business, or if we jump into the fray to defend Israel, we're just combatants and valid targets. We don't get to be some sort of faux peacekeeper that only protects one side.

I don’t think the Israeli merchant ships are attacking the Houthi rebels, though. The Saudis are, but not via drones from shipping lanes.

Merchant ships aren't just innocent bystanders though, they're part of the supply chain, economy, and war effort. How is this different than U-boats sinking our merchant marines, or our blockades stopping supplies to other countries?

Another comment said that shipping lane is used by other nations' vessels too, but the Houthi are specifically targeting Israeli ships (and by extension their American defenders, but only because we choose to be involved).

Ships from all sorts of countries sail the world, but it's not an innocent coincidence that ours are routinely targeted by Israel's enemies...

It's silly for us to play the victim when we put ourselves in harm's way specifically to defend Israel against these threats. It's like sailing through the Taiwan Strait with a carrier group and acting surprised when it annoys China.

We use our force projection to play global police, but then turn around and pretend like we're innocent... we're far from it. These are self-inflicted casualties because we're picking sides.

> Merchant ships aren't just innocent bystanders though, they're part of the supply chain, economy, and war effort.

Sure, I agree with you there—although Israel isn't at war with the Houthi rebels. Again, the Houthi are fighting the Yemeni government and the Saudis. Although "Death to Israel" is part of their charter, so there is that.

> It's silly for us to play the victim when we put ourselves in harm's way specifically to defend Israel against these threats.

I don't know that we're playing the victim here; our ships are clearly there to do exactly what it is that they're doing. Overall it's probably a net win for us—we get practice in anti-drone warfare.

> It remained unclear what damage, if any, the vessels sustained in the attacks.

De-escalation seems like the right move here.

Iran much like Hitler will not respond to appeasement. Let’s not repeat the mistake of our forefather with a “peace in our time” type of approach.

George Washington will not respond to appeasement. Let’s not repeat the mistake of our forefather with a “peace in our time” type of approach.

By all accounts Iran has many reasons to view the U.S.A as a violent oppressor. Personally I disagree with many parts of the ideology the Iranian regime is pushing. But comparing that situation to Nazi Germany and ww2 is very misguided and uninformed. I'd argue the closest to wide scale genocide that I'm aware of was recently in Ethiopia in the Tigray. Right after the President had received a nobel peace price. And we didn't see the U.S.A lift a finger. Viewing the military campaigns as bringing freedom and "western" values to savages is the kind of provably false propaganda the US military wants you to believe.

Their “navy” consisted of 9 “ships”, of which 6 were speedboats. Like the kind you go fishing on. The US probably spent more money on the ammunition to sink them than they were worth.