Phil Mattingly on Iran: The Reality Is That to Retake the Strait of Hormuz, It Would Likely Require Ground Troops

EXCERPT:

MATTINGLY: “Yeah, look, there’s a distinction where two things can both be true. The U.S. is not heavily reliant in any way, shape, or form, particularly on oil when it comes to ships that transit the Strait of Hormuz or tankers that transit the Strait of Hormuz. the United States is extraordinarily reliant on the global market that is oil. So basically, as we’ve talked about repeatedly over the course of the last couple of weeks, just because the U.S. is producing 13.6 million barrels a day of oil and is more energy independent in this moment than it has ever been in history, that is undoubtedly the case, you have seen gas prices top $4 a gallon as of today, which is more than $1 than it was before Operation Epic Fury started because oil is a global market and retail gas comes downstream of that. I think what’s important to note here is the reality behind the scenes is to actually retake the Strait of Hormuz. To Kristen’s point, Iran has a say here. It would take offensive action by the United States military —“
RAJU: “Ground troops.”
HOLMES: “Likely.”
MATTINGLY: “— which would put — likely require ground troops, would almost certainly put naval assets in extreme danger, which is why there are no naval escorts, despite the fact that on March 3rd, the president pledged that they were coming. What is happening, I think, what you see publicly in kind of the pendulum swinging back and forth day by day is a recognition that this is not something that can be done without loss of life, use of ground troops, expanding and extending this operation much further than he pledged to, wanted to, or is within the four to six week timeline. And therefore, he looks at the kind of statistics and says, hey, Europe, Asia, everybody else, you get most of the oil here, you go do it.”