Britain is continuing to try to recruit for its naval mission in the
Strait of Hormuz. While British officials say they’ll send enough ships
to escort all of their own British transports, they aren’t getting a lot
of support from elsewhere.
That’s continuing with reports that the German government, one of the major nations considering participation, remains divided on
the issue. While the Christian Democrats generally support the idea,
the Social Democrats say they don’t see any benefit to getting involved,
and that going for military options risks to just further destabilize
the region.
Britain has sent a destroyer,
the HMS Duncan, to the Persian Gulf to participate in the escort
missions. This joints the HMS Montrose in the region, though the
Montrose will soon leave and be replaced by the HMS Kent.
South Korea has announced that it is sending a “unit” to the Strait of Hormuz
as well, in this case to join the US-led fleet. The unit appears to
consist of a single destroyer that had been engaged in anti-piracy
operations near Somalia.
At the end of the 18th Century, the region in and out of the Straits of Gibraltar swarmed with state-sponsored piracy. Among many conflicts, it became our own Barbary Wars.
During that whole period, the smaller states formed a coalition force of escort vessels. Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, the US, I think Papenburg, and others each sent a vessel or two to escort convoys of ships through the pirate region.
This sort of thing has been going on for a very long time. In all that time, it has been a very imperfect and troubled solution. Hence, the US and others just launched various Barbary Wars.
It isn’t likely to be any more of a real solution today. It is a patch on a running sore.
I hope that this malign imperial nation of the past soon becomes just a footnote in history. Looking forward to Brexit and then subsequent disintegration as Scotland spits off. It will be good riddance.
It doesn’t matter how many countries get involved. Even one more country other than the US allows the US to claim a “coalition”, as they’ve done before. If the US doesn’t get as many foreign ships as it wants, however, it will use that as a justification to send more US Navy ships. That will just make it easier for the US to impose its blockade on Iran – which is the real goal. To be precise, the real goal is war with Iran – and a blockade is one way the US can start it.
Yes. This is a ploy to draw other nations into another conflict.