Allies Can Do What Trump Would: Put a High Price on Hormuz Aid

I asked Kevin Rowlands, an ex-naval officer who until last year headed the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre, and now edits the journal of the Royal United Services Institute, a UK-defense think tank. The first, he said, should be for any operation to be visibly independent of the US war effort. The Europeans, Asians and Gulf states should not allow Trump to use the problem he has created in Hormuz to drag them into a war that they and most of their voters opposed. This is something Starmer also stressed on Monday...Beyond these operational questions, participants should also name a price. For the UK, says Rowlands, that might include a US deployment to the high Northern Atlantic. Britain has been drawing down its naval presence in the Gulf and other more remote locations to concentrate — in part at Trump’s behest — on taking more responsibility for defense of the homeland. So, if the UK is going to redeploy assets to the Gulf, it should ask the US to backfill the holes that leaves in its defenses against Russia.