Reply #15: They were not able to do so in the 80's

[Warren Stupidity]

and I doubt they could do so now. The Iranians might be able to moderately disrupt and inconvenience shipping in the gulf, but I doubt they can actually cut off the gulf. More likely they can make our occupation of Iraq even more of a nightmare than it already is, and they can goad us into stupid actions which will further alienate us from the rest of the muslim world and further enhance Iran's position as the dominant muslim power in the region, without our being able to do much more than blow some of their shit up.

On the other hand this sort of crap gets out of control very quickly. Who knows what nonsense we have planned, or what nonsense the Iranians have planned in response.