🇺🇸 This is what a naval blocakde actually looks like

One carrier strike group built around the USS Abraham Lincoln. 4 Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers. 3 Littoral Combat Ships. 5 amphibious assault vessels. An attack submarine. 3 fleet replenishment ships keeping all of it fueled and armed indefinitely.

That's a sustained siege posture, the kind of deployment you don't assemble to make a point and go home.

The timing says everything. Iran is sitting at a working dinner in Islamabad insisting it keeps control of Hormuz and charges tolls on passing vessels. Meanwhile Washington just parked a carrier strike group and an attack submarine at the entrance to the same strait.

More ships are reportedly on the way.

Iran walked into Pakistan with Hormuz as its leverage. The US just made clear it intends to contest that leverage with something heavier than a negotiating document.

The talks are happening. So is this. Both at the same time.

@ShivAroor

#GateSquareAprilPostingChallenge