The US Navy’s blockade of Iran proved extremely effective and should be restored and maintained, since lifting it in exchange for nothing has encouraged the terrorist IRGC to keep fighting. But the 20% toll is both a crime and a mistake, & must not be considered under any circumstances. Trying to collect this money would make the United States, not Iran, the enemy of the entire world. Trump has made us too many enemies already. The Iran tolling system has been rejected by 141 members of the UN General Assembly. Let’s not flip that count against the US.
This crackpot idea would also needlessly lose the US the high ground of international law, a stupid unforced political error. The great US tradition is freedom of the seas and freedom of navigation, which is almost universally prized. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Hormuz is an international waterway where trying to extort money from passing ships is PIRACY. Somebody should try to look like a world statesman, not a greedy, rent-gouging Queens landlord.
@WebsterGTarpley Post-Putin Russia: Do we get a hyper-aggressive nationalist backlash, an isolated "19th-century Japan" fortress state closed to the West, or an opening for democracy? What does the historical chess board suggest about the power vacuum? #AskWebster