them, 84 brand new f-15s, upgrades to 70 others, and this is a big deal worth about $30 billion. now, we talk about this being a warning to iran. iran has threatened to shut down the strait of hormuz, this is a potential choke point for the world s supply of oil, about a sixth of the world s oil flows through the strait. iran is threatening to do that. we ve also heard a warning from the u.s. fifth fleet that it will not allow iran to close the strait. this deal was actually approved last year by congress. there were some concerns at the time about the degree to which this may upset the balance of power in the middle east, those concerns especially coming from israel, but that has changed based on recent actions from iran, and israel s expected to remain the dominant military power in the region. gregg: doug, is the white house going to be arguing here that, look, this sale will help us here at home? yeah. you know, everything from the
is exercising around the straights of hormuz and i think they re trying to ratchet up the impression that they re prepared to do almost anything militarily to protect themselves. i think in this case as well they re trying to intimidate the obama administration and many european countries that don t want to see those sanctions increased. jon: well the u.s. navy s fifth fleet has answered as i said saying that any closure of the strait of hormuz will not be tolerated. the fifth fleet could essentially sink the entire iranian navy if it wanted to, right? yeah. i ve had many conversations with military officials here in this country over the years and it s not bluster and it s not boast. it s a fact if the iranians tried to block the straits of hormuz it would be a matter of two or three days at the most before the straits were reopened. the damage caused to iran would not just be to its navy which would be on the bottom of the sea but to a
yes it is. they could do it couple ways. they could sink a supertanker going through the strait of hormuz. they could mine the strait of hormuz. it is a very narrow waterway. it is only 17 miles wide and two miles in lane and two miles out lane. they could close it down but they can t close it down for long. why? the u.s. fifth fleet is right there. the u.s. fifth fleet could come in with mine sweepers, take out the mines. we could take out any supertanker and drag it away. we could open it right away. what does that do to the price of oil? sends it through the roof. any insurance company leaving all tankers leaving the gulf will say we have to jack up our rates to compensate for the fact that might be a war in the middle east. iran, whatever they do will raise the price of oil. what should the president do? he should go to the u.s. domestic energy suppliers and take the handcuffs off and say, oil, shale oil, gas, natural gas, clean coal, go to it and make america the energy source of
million barrels of excess oil reserves. at the last opec meeting on december 24th said it would bring that production on-line to bring stability but none of this is taking into account iran s threat to close the hormuz straight. the state department is calling the iranian threat a bluster. the u.s. fifth fleet put out a statement saying that it would not allow the straits to be closed. julie. julie: jennifer griffin reporting from the pentagon. thanks so much, jennifer. reporter: thank you. julie: we ll learn more about this situation. former u.n. ambassador john bolton will give his take on how exactly we should respond to this threat. jon: well, with just six days to go till the iowa caucuses newt gingrich is criticizing ron paul, the new frontrunner in the iowa polls. the former house speaker calling congressman paul worse than president obama. chris wallace, the anchor of fox news sunday , joins us from washington. i guess it is natural to go after the frontrunner but
half barrels a day, and the world adjusted to it, and the libyan oil is coming back online. i want to get to the map we just showed. iran is undertaking a ten-day military exercise, threatening to close this, the straits of hormuz. do they have the military might to do that? can they do that? i think the belgian navy could scare large oil tankers into not going through a particular strait. these are huge unarmed ships, and the slightest military pressure against them could sink them, so i i think iran could close those straits. they would then confront the u.s. fifth fleet, and and would confront our air power as well, so could iran interrept rupt? yes. could iran sustain that if the entire world justifiably viewed it as an act of war? could the u.s. stop them, could they? look, i mean,