Old School

Who needs terrorists? The Iranian government just sent a signal that they're prepared to play war 'old school', by control of the sea lanes and cutting off vital resources to the enemy.

Apr 3, 2006 — TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran test fired a new torpedo in the Strait of Hormuz off its south coast, the world's main nexus for shipping oil, state television reported on Monday. ...

"Revolutionary Guard naval forces a few minutes ago test fired a powerful torpedo in the Strait of Hormuz. This torpedo is capable of destroying enemy warships and submarines at any depth and moving at any speed," state television said.

The test comes in the middle of Gulf wargames that started on Friday. Iran earlier in the wargames said it had tested a radar-evading missile and an underwater missile that can outpace enemy warships.

Now, the Iranians have never been known for modest rhetoric, and it's quite likely they exaggerate. But the key point is, warships, shmarships, how hard is it to hit an oil tanker?

The world oil supply is stretched tight, and Saudi oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. It's not too hard to imagine an attack on Iran seriously disrupting the world's oil supply in ways that would make us very, very sad. As even Mr. Bush has noticed, the United States is addicted to oil. The image of our junkie economy in withdrawal isn't pretty.

Too bad we had to spend so much attention, time and money on setting up that new terrorist training facility instead of figuring out a subtle way of dealing with Iran before it became a problem. Silly neocons.