Bloomberg Declares 'Battle' for Hormuz, Ignores Decades of US Naval Supremacy and Sanctions
Bloomberg Politics reported that the United States and Iran are 'locked in a battle' for control of the Strait of Hormuz, citing a failure to convene 'fresh peace talks' and comments from President Donald Trump about maintaining a ceasefire. The report features Michael Ratney, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, offering his perspective on this supposed naval contest. What Bloomberg’s coverage
omits, or rather, fundamentally distorts, is the reality of who controls the Strait of Hormuz, and indeed, the Persian Gulf. The notion of a 'battle' between two equal powers ignores the overwhelming presence of the US Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain, which has maintained continuous patrols in the region for decades. It also glosses over the fact that Iran, a nation under 45 years of
punishing sanctions, has its primary export, oil, traversing this very strait. To portray this as a symmetric conflict, or a 'battle' for control, is to ignore the existing, stark power hierarchy. This framing conveniently sidesteps the economic strangulation of Iran, which has been under US sanctions since 1979, further intensified after the US unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018. This withdrawal, a direct betrayal of international diplomacy, undermined an agreement that restricted Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Furthermore, the US military has openly threatened Iran's ability to sell its oil, a clear act of economic warfare disguised as maritime security. Consider the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS