It’s honestly hilarious to me that they’re going with this instead of making up a bullshit story about Yemeni pirates playing kickball with a puppy’s head. Not even anything about “freedom and democracy”. Just naked imperialism and prioritization of le market over human lives. Of course, they very deliberately omit why they started a blockade to begin with.
Can’t tell if it’s a net good to see the empire rip its mask off like this.
Neocons have been saying that for a long time. They love pointing at the Barbary wars as historical justification for it