Comment Re:Suicide boats is not Iran's primary weapon (Score 2) 969
Except that the US could just wait the Iranians out - time is on the US side, which is why the Iranians are the ones saber-rattling.
New oilfields are starting to be developed on the huge reserves of "tight oil" in the Americas, which we only recently developed the technology to extract. Once those fields are running, Iranian influence is greatly diluted.
In a decade the Iranian regime may well topple due to civil strife, as some of its neighbors in the region have.
Iranian threats so far have only served to unite the Middle East against the Iranians. It used to be Israel that was isolated in the region, now it is Iran.
The best outcome for Iran would be a North-Korea-style deal in which the US supplies economic aid in return for a stop to Iran's nuclear program. The problem for the Iranians is that the US got played by Kim Jong-Il, and is thus unlikely to try that approach again.
The threats to close the Strait are nothing more than a frustrated Iranian regime trying to gain leverage it simply doesn't have.