KEEPING THE PRESSURE ON IRAN: A report from VOA and the AP:

The Trump administration’s new Pentagon chief says he aims to ensure a U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf that would deter Iran from threatening to stop or seize any American commercial ship.

Mark Esper, who was sworn in as defense secretary on Tuesday, tells reporters that this arrangement wouldn’t mean having an American warship escorting every U.S. commercial ship.

As Esper puts it, “to the degree that the risk demands it,” the U.S. military will do what it can – by air and by sea – to ensure secure navigation in the Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz.

According to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, allied navies will be involved in the effort to counter Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz:

The United States believes a proposed European initiative to bolster maritime security in the Gulf would complement ongoing U.S. efforts there instead of being a “stand-alone” operation, the top U.S. general said on Wednesday.

Washington in June first proposed some sort of multinational effort open to all allies and partners to bolster maritime security in the Gulf after accusing Iran of attacking oil tankers around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint between Iran and Oman.

But fracking has fractured the ayatollahs’ oil weapon. “Fracking hasn’t quite fractured the ayatollah regime, but combined with economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., American fracking has helped sap and impoverish the dictatorship.”

As a result, Hormuz isn’t as critical an economic chokepoint; “secure navigation” for tankers and other commercial shipping matters, but closing it isn’t the economic threat it was even a decade ago. Recall geo-strategic community organizer Barack Obama’s statement in 2012: “We can’t just drill our way out of a problem.” The faculty club fool also wanted to let the ayatollahs build nuclear weapons.