The US has seized or escorted back to Iranian waters three (so far) Iranian cargo and tanker ships on the high seas after having announced a blockade of all Iran-related shipping, both inbound to Iran and outbound from Iran. Much is being made of those high seas interdictions.

What those making mountains out of these minor swells (yes, I mixed a metaphor. The mix is its own metaphor) choose to ignore is that it’s not a blockade if the first layer, here at the boundary between the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, can be breached and then the shipping is immune to further interference.

If the nation’s assets can escape, the nation isn’t being blockaded. Any blockade worth its…salt…must include the ships being blockaded, wherever they’re found, not just the nation itself that’s being blockaded.