Trump warns of Death, Fire, and Fury if Iran disrupts Gulf oil flows
(Originally published March 11 in “What in the World“) The U.S. military launched its most intense day of attacks against Iran yet.
The Pentagon said Tuesday the U.S. had hit more than 5,000 targets in the first 10 days of the war, singling out Tuesday as the “most intense,” with Tehran residents reporting widespread strikes on both military and civilian structures. Israel also said it had launched a wave of strikes, but describing them not as intense, but merely as “additional.” And Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had launched its “35th wave” of retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. bases in the region. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. all reported continued drone and missiles coming from Iran.
Tuesday’s intensive U.S. strikes included an attack on 16 Iranian mine-laying ships. The hope is that the attacks prevented the ships from mining the vital Strait of Hormuz and thus exposing oil tankers to hull-splitting explosions. But only Iran knows for sure. CNN reported Tuesday that Iranian vessels had been laying mines, prompting Trump to warn Tehran in a social-media post that “we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY! If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.”
The New York Times said the ships were moored “near” the strait. But Iran lies “near” the strait, and it has a naval base that’s technically right on the strait, Bandar Abbas. The Times didn’t say whether that was where the mine-laying ships were when they were struck, nor whether the ships were sunk, destroyed, or even disabled.
Trump followed with an attempt at a pre-emptive warning: “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign [sic] upon them.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed concerns that the U.S. and its allies may be running short of anti-missile interceptors to knock down Iran’s retaliatory missiles and drones. Hegseth said the U.S. could “crossload” interceptors for allies, which sounds like taking U.S. interceptors from other bases like, say, Asia and deploying them in the Middle East.
Iran, meanwhile, continues to demonstrate the kind of “horizontal escalation” underdogs like Vietnam used to put superior U.S. forces on the backfoot. U.S. defense officials say Iran has broadened its attacks to target not just U.S. forces, but air defense and radar systems, and even the hotels used by U.S. personnel in the region, with one Iran-backed militia in Iraq launching a drone swarm against an upscale hotel, the Erbil Arjaan by Rotana, that Americans favored near a U.S. base in Erbil. The U.S. State Dept., which has already ordered diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia, has now extended that evacuation order to the consulate in the southern Turkish city Adana.
And like U.S. ally France, which while not supporting Trump’s war has had to send naval forces to the Middle East to protect shipping, Pakistan has had to send its own navy into the Gulf despite its own efforts at neutrality to escort its commercial vessels. Just last week, Pakistan was busy conducting airstrikes against Afghanistan for its alleged support of the anti-Iran Pakistani Taliban.