Word: gulf
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sources, who demanded anonymity, said the incident occurred over the weekend shortly after U.S. Navy warships began escorting a group of three Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz into the Perslan Gulf...
...America's stated goal is to protect oil shipments. But oil experts say the gulf war has stopped only 1% of tanker traffic. What's more, a halt in tanker traffic would damage Iran the most. Thus America's bold action is directly defending Iran's highest strategic interests...
...fact, it does. If the U.S. shrank from its commitment to protect free shipping in the gulf, it might as well discard any pretense of being a superpower. Nor could the U.S. afford to stand by idly after the Soviets earlier this year eagerly accepted Kuwait's invitation to help protect its oil shipments...
...gulf fiasco is only the latest ill-fated attempt by the Reagan Administration to assert U.S. interests by deploying troops on largely symbolic missions. The crew of the Stark was on a poorly defined mission when it was struck by wayward Iraqi Exocet missiles last May. In 1983 Marines deployed in Beirut turned out to be sitting ducks in an ill-protected barracks; 241 Americans were killed by a truck bomb. Despite the valor of those who fought in Grenada in 1983, the mission was beset by examples of military ineptitude and interservice rivalries. In Libya three years later, after...
...this case the commitment has been made, and the damage that a humiliating retreat would inflict on America's reputation would be almost as great as that from the Iranian arms- for-hostages deals. "If the U.S. backs out of this one," says a Western diplomat in the Persian Gulf, "it won't have enough credibility to float a teacup...