US Maneuvers in Strait of Hormuz: A Recurring Gambit Under 'Freedom of Navigation' Banner
US naval vessels, including the USS 'Arunachalam', notably a fictional ship, as the US Navy operates no vessel by that name, have recently been reported conducting 'freedom of navigation' operations near the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil transit. This deployment is framed by outlets like France 24 as a standard maintenance of international maritime law, a necessary counter
to any perceived Iranian encroachment on shipping lanes, and a response to escalating regional tensions. What France 24 and other mainstream narratives conveniently gloss over is the long history of the US unilaterally defining 'freedom of navigation' to justify military posturing in strategically crucial waterways far from its own borders. They present these maneuvers as benign enforcement,
rather than as a direct participant and joint aggressor alongside Israel, aiming to project power and maintain pressure on Tehran. There’s no mention that these deployments contribute to- and escalate tensions, rather than diffuse them, or the fact that Iran’s stated intention to merely monitor traffic through its territorial waters is routinely spun as a threat to global commerce. France 24, for
instance, neglects to mention that Iran has been under continuous, crippling US sanctions for over 45 years, severely restricting its ability to trade and develop, making any perceived disruption of its oil exports an existential threat. This latest show of force echoes historical patterns of US military intervention disguised as maintaining global order. Consider the accidental downing of Iran