Our Navy was built for exactly this moment in the Strait of Hormuz

In Iran, President Donald Trump must not forget that the U.S. Navy was created with one thing in mind: securing the freedom of navigation for Americans. And that is exactly what it needs to do in the Strait of Hormuz to once again carry out its historic mission.

Free navigation is in our blood. In 1785, Muslim Barbary pirates seized American vessels, holding their crews for ransom. Stripped of British naval protection after independence, our young republic faced two choices: pay off pirates or build the means to fight back. For nearly a decade, we paid, and the pirates grew bolder. Then, in 1793, after a truce that opened the Atlantic to their raids, the pirates seized 11 more American ships and enslaved roughly 120 sailors.