You can view it like that, but most people don't. At least the people involved manning those tankers don't.

And why should them? It appears that the Iranian armed forces started acted quite autonomously, by design. They know that communications are not secure, so local commanders have a very high latitude in what actions they deem correct to take. If such a commander deems that asking and collecting $2 MM per vessel is a good idea, they'll do it. But if another commander thinks that sinking a passing vessel is what their standing orders are, they'll do it too, not being aware that the toll was paid. So, if you are the captain of such a vessel, what do you do? Do you complain to Iran for not holding their end of the bargain?

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genxy a day ago | parent | next [-]

They are all in a whatsapp or telegram together.

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yogthos a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean ships are going through right now, so clearly at least some people do view it like that.

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mememememememo a day ago | parent [-]

People work on dangerous fishing trawlers because of the $. People can be found who risk their life for money.

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yogthos 18 hours ago | parent [-]

Right, clearly you can always find people to ship oil through the strait. So the whole notion that nobody will use it because it's dangerous is nonsense.

	▲	credit_guy 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If you read what I said, it was that "most people won't do it", not that nobody will do it. From the point of view of worldwide oil supply, what most tanker captains do matters more than what a few exceptions do.