You may have never heard of it, and most likely never been through it, but the Straight of Hormuz is one of the most important waterways in the world.  This is from Wikipedia:

The Strait of Hormuz (/hɔːrˈmuːz/ Persian: تنگه هرمز Tangeh-ye Hormoz listen(help·info) Arabic: مَضيق هُرمُز Maḍīq Hurmuz) is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world’s most strategically important choke points.^[1] On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. The strait is about 90 nautical miles (167 km) long, with a width varying from about 52 nautical miles (96 km) to 21 nautical miles (39 km).^[2][3]

A third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and almost 25% of total global oil consumption passes through the strait, making it a highly important strategic location for international trade.^[3][4]

In 2007, the last time I was part of a battle group that transited the straight, we were harassed by Iranian P3s and small boats. There aren’t many countries that could break through a stranglehold of the straight, and even less with the will to do so.

When the U.S. ended our energy independence, it was a nod to the Iranians. They, once again, had a say on the world stage. It was giving them back a crushing power to the world’s energy market. We had no reason to give that away again, except to harm our domestic producers, and elevate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. With their control of the straight, they could raise prices world-wide.

Now piracy is the new gig. This is from Breitbart:

“They steal Iranian oil off the Greek coast, then our brave men who don’t fear death respond and seized the enemy’s oil tanker,” Khamenei said during an 80-minute speech on the anniversary of the death of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “But they use their media empire and extensive propaganda to accuse Iran of piracy.”

“Who is the pirate? You stole our oil, we took it back from you. Taking back a stolen property is not called stealing,” he added.

This was in response to sanctions put in place by the US. This is from the same Breitbart article:

The confiscations were retaliation for Greece’s role in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker the same week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating Washington’s harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The weakness of this administration encourages bad actors and gives power to oligarchs and dictators. That is bad, but the fact that we are doing this purposefully is beyond reason. The bad actions of this administration are intentional, and are destroying our republic.