It should be taken with a grain of salt when you hear European and Asian countries saying they won’t help to open the Strait. Majority of these countries are short oil and will face severe crises if they don’t act. There are definitely closed door conversations in the US being had around testing these partners’ resolve. The problem is that although it’s not *as* big of a problem for the US, it’s still bad. It could get a bit weird. Trump may threaten US export restrictions on oil and gas if they don’t assist which would decrease price pressures domestically but worsen the situation for our allies. On the other hand, they could counter with threats of Treasury and US asset sales to raise dollars to fund higher energy costs at the expense of financial market stability.

Australia has no place sending the three life rafts we call a navy to Iran, we need them to police our fishermen and surfers.