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War On Iran: – IRGC Defeats U.S. Strait Clearing Scheme
Last Friday, August 28, the U.S. Central Command claimed to have removed all sea mines from the Strait of Hormuz:
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has announced that U.S. forces have cleared Iranian sea mines from the internationally recognized shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, saying the routes are now open to commercial shipping.
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The announcement follows earlier statements by President Donald Trump that U.S. forces had removed or detonated mines in international waters in the strait. Cooper’s latest video provides CENTCOM’s formal operational confirmation that the Traffic Separation Scheme has been cleared.
From the position of the U.S. this was, of course, good news.
There was the slight problem that no one believed it:
U.S. allies have privately assessed that some mines may not have been cleared. Earlier estimates from the International Maritime Organization and industry groups placed the number of mines in the historic shipping lanes at around 80, with some assessments higher.
Allied officials have also warned that sea currents can move mines and that residual risks could remain outside the main monitored lanes.
The International Maritime Organization and maritime information centers continue to advise vessels to exercise maximum caution in the area. Shipping companies and insurers are also conducting their own risk assessments.
Iran continued to warn ships to not use any routes besides the one’s designated by it.
(However, there has been no evidence yet that any mines had indeed been laid.)
On Sunday Iran said that the U.S. had attacked Iranian military positions on the island of Larak which sits in the northern edge of the Strait of Hormuz. This was the first attack after a month of relative peace. The strike resulted in the death and injury of several Iranian servicemen.
CentCom later confirmed the strike:
U.S. forces attacked two Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, according to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), marking the first publicly confirmed strike on Iran in weeks.
In a statement to TIME, CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins confirmed the strikes on the launchers on Larak Island, adding that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces “were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines” into the strait.
Iran has Fajr-5 missiles which can lay mines up to a 100 kilometer distance. Fired from Larak the mines can be deployed all over the Strait and up the western and eastern coast of the UAE.
The Iranian Republican Guards Corp (IRGC) promised revenge for the U.S. strike. Within a few hours it launched missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan:
In a statement issued on Monday morning, the IRGC said a combined missile and drone operation, codenamed “Punishment of the Aggressor,” targeted the King Hussein and Al-Azraq military bases hosting US forces.
The operation hit “technical and repair infrastructure, as well as the enemy fighter deployment sites,” inflicting significant damage on the aggressor’s military assets.
Video from Jordan showed the launch of several air defense missiles. There are no reports yet of impacts from the Iranian strikes.
An additional Iranian response was launched with drones targeting U.S. positions in the United Arab Emirates:
The army said in a statement on Monday morning that the attack involved dozens of suicide drones, and struck locations housing US military helicopters and personnel at al-Minhad Air Base, located approximately 24 kilometers (15 miles) south of Dubai.
The UAE said its air defenses engaged some drones but gave no information of the results or impacts.
Iran then announced a third strike against U.S. assets:
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says its air defense forces have shot down a US MQ-9 long-range unmanned aerial vehicle over the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement on Monday, the IRGC said the drone was struck by missile fire from the force’s modern air defense units and crashed into the waters of the Persian Gulf.
In total more than 50 MQ-9 drones, at a price of $30 million each, have been shot down by Iran during the conflict.
Three strikes against U.S. positions and assets is a intentionally disproportional response for the U.S. strike.
In an additional announcement the Islamic Republic reported that a supertanker in the Strait had hit two mines:
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy says a rogue supertanker attempting to navigate an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz struck two sea mines, triggering massive fires on board the vessel and bringing it to a complete stop.
In a statement issued on Monday, the IRGC Navy said the tanker had attempted to pass through a route not authorized under the Islamic Republic’s maritime security regulations.
While the damage of the ship has yet to be confirmed by independent sources it is reasonable to assume that the Iranian official statement is true.
The CentCom scheme of declaring all mines cleared to reopen the Strait has thus been defeated.
It is obviously still Iran which has the total control over the Strait.
While some tankers carrying oil are allowed to slip through, rumors have it that some of these are also carrying Iranian oil and are thus defeating the blockade of Iran which the U.S. imposed.
As the consequence of the above skirmishes Brent crude oil prices rose 2%.
Meanwhile the U.S. military continues to ‘leak’ reports to the press which condemn the whole Iran operation:
Several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland, according to people familiar with a recent assessment prepared for the Pentagon chief.
The warnings — detailed for Hegseth by the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America — appear in the Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), these people said. They described the assessment to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because the document is classified.
This leaks come after others claiming a lack of ammunition and discomfort with the long deployment of U.S. assets.
It is obvious that the bowels of the Pentagon are quite uncomfortable with its head’s decisions.
RE: Bottom-up strategy
@xLemming | Aug 31 2026 16:28 utc | 87
Great list. Those are the basics at the individual level.
@GreatLakesObserver | Aug 31 2026 14:31 utc | 44
GLO: that was brilliant. “Are the parts of a tree organized? ”
New thinking about what an “organization” is, how form it, and how to operate it … is clearly helpful; what would be even more helpful is if we had some functional examples we could observe, learn from and then replicate.
“You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem in the first place.” – attributed to Einstein
So let’s get some new thinking. Come at this from an entirely different slant, and above all, stop playing the game according to the Big’s rules. Let’s make a new game.
For example: “Let’s ID 100 products that can be economically viable to make and sell at the local level … products that can be substituted for products made by the Bigs”. Rephrase that as: “turn the fire-hose of little people money back toward the little people, and away from the Bigs”
@snake | Aug 31 2026 15:16 utc | 64
Replies interleaved below with your orig message.
Snake: I think there is competence I think. we can build anything we want if only we had access to the money.
Tom: There is competence, and yes, we little people can build anything. After all, we built whatever the Bigs have, right? Before I respond to “if we only had the money” … may I ask “what do we need to build, how much would it cost, and what benefits would it confer, and would the beneficiaries of what got built pay for it (like they already do for all the stuff the little people are already consuming)
Snake: Lack of coherency is due to the separation by the nation state territorial we rule you system.
Tom: To some degree I agree, but I don’t think that’s the most significant obstacle
Snake: Lack of secure communications between the people of the bottom up class is I think the major attribute that explains the lack of collective intent
Tom: Secure comms are a pipe dream. Bigs can penetrate any secrecy the little people dream up, because the little people are rotten at keeping secrets. Forget about secrecy; never gonna happen. Why not just do stuff, right out in the open, that advances the interests of little people? Redirect time, emotion, effort, capital from stuff that supports the Bigs to stuff that supports the little people? (see xLemming’s work above; it’s pretty good)
Snake: so maybe your points outline the barriers a bottom up society needs to attain and maintain true self determination.
Tom: other posters did a great job of identifying the barriers. What I think we should do is identify the Wide Open Pathways.
Snake: From self determination all else follows.. (Tom: xLemming would agree). How can programs be defined and implemented that address these barriers to self determination..
Tom: Pick a few key examples of “self determination” and then … go do that stuff. Then tell, or better yet, show others what and how you did it, and it benefited you (e.g. it was “worth it”).
Then try an experiment re: secrecy. Put that example you did up on your freakin’ FaceBook page, send a message to CIA and Deep State and Netanyahoo et. al. telling them about it. Invite them to F it up! Guess what? They won’t bother. “We don’t care about the handful of peanuts you little people trade among yourselves down on the street-corner. We care about the Major Graft stuff!”
They don’t care what the little people are doing. We are not relevant to them except to the extent we can be shorn (like a sheep) via the next war, scam, boondoggle, pump-n-dump, etc.
Snake: One thought comes to mind..the money needed to control the outcomes of many political races is in the pockets of the bottom up. the political parties are in competition for that dollar with the bottom up.. and propaganda is their weapon.
Tom: Yes. All that media, war, propaganda, advertising, etc. is done to steer the public into doing what the predators want. xLemming is on to something: “figure out what you need, and go get it, and don’t pay too much attention to what the predators or the predator-controlled herd is doing”
Snake: I think this may be a weak spot which the bottom up might be able to take advantage of.
Tom: It’s the secret sauce, Snake. The major advantage (as-yet vastly underutilized) of the Little Guys is there’s way more of us than there is of them. But we’re not well informed, we’re isolated, fearful etc. Each of those dis-aggregating forces can be overcome via a few conversations – face to face, or even remote-anonymous like we’re doing here. Talk, find a something to build that solves a common problem (high cost of food, energy, housing, education … all the rent-extraction taps draining the life out of the little people) … make a place to talk about building things (instead of endless bitching) and go make it happen. Quit the endless talk-bitch-blame cycle and go do something. Build it, share it, party over it, etc.
If there’s any more discussion on this subject, let’s take it to the general-purpose thread. B: sorry I diffused this thread.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Aug 31 2026 20:11 utc | 142
Still no evidence Iran uses dumb sea mines. It is against their interest, they want control over straits, so they can use it, not to block it for everybody.What is more likely they used smart sea mines (self propelled) basically underwater drones to attack ships. These are tools for control and selective targeting.
Posted by: Abe | Aug 31 2026 15:10 utc | 59
Abe makes perfect sense here. I now think that that is what Iran did.
As for organizing the masses to go outside and march in the streets, didn’t we learn that that is useless?
The old effective organizers, the ones that got the ruling class to throw the working class some bones, had the slogan:
Educate, Agitate, Organize
In that order.
It seems obvious to me, from the squeals and plans of the rulers, that the internet is a very effective means that we proles have to educate the masses.
Instead of all information coming top down, beamed into each house or car, with the recipients having no way to ascertain its truth, or know how other plebes are responding, we now have a means of horizontal communication, far more effective than handing out leaflets on a corner. Hence, the nostalgia for the good ol’ days that is occasionally expressed openly by the political class. They don’t like us talking among ourselves, and they are determined to stop that.
That is why the likes of Obama, Schwab, and Von der Leyen are so deadset on censoring and banning people from the internet.
The latest is “Think of the children”, pushing their desired government-issued ID to get on the internet. If they can push that through, their power will be enhanced, and ours will be lessened.
Obviously, governments that pushed the vaccine onto children, and teach children from toddlerhood that they might “be in the wrong body”, which requires drugs and surgery, have absolutely NO interest in protecting the children. They prey upon children.
And that includes the Podesta class, which we are not allowed to reference. We can scream about Epstein all we want, but if you mention Podesta, you are in trouble.
BUT. Apparently, the reason that Trump won in 2016 was that the computer the NYPD seized from Weiner had a video depicting horrendous child torture and murder committed by Hillary and Huma, hidden in a file marked “Insurance”. The cops that saw it were so horrified that they threatened to go public. Instead, Trump was allowed to win, much to everyone’s surprise (including his), and the cops committed suicide shortly afterwards.
I am sure that Trump has no similar tape, no matter how many people on MoA confidently assert it to be so.
If there was, it would have been released by now, instead of covered up, like the Huma one.
That is how they roll.
Posted by: wagelaborer | Aug 31 2026 21:25 utc | 156
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