You may define “reasonable” any way you want to. The fact is that U.S. has sufficient military power to enforce its will on others while having enough soft power to, usually, wrap those actions in a cloak of U.N. legitimacy. One should not confuse this with morality or justice or righteousness of action. The U.S. has a long history of hypocritical justifications against those it deems foes. For instance we didn’t really care all that much when Israel acquired nuclear weapons but suddenly care when the Iranians want to acquire them.
We look askance when others do to us as we do to them but we shouldn’t. It’s ok to admit that we (the U.S.) are hypocrites when it comes to this stuff. We decry (justly in my opinion) the Russian invasion of Ukraine while having engaged in even more pointlessly stupid and evil invasions of other nations (like Iraq).
That is correct. The US has sufficient military power to enforce a global sanctions regime on Iran, and everybody knows it, very much including Iran. Iran, meanwhile, has no such ability. Sovereign states relate to each other in a Hobbesian state of nature, not under the due process laws of any one country.
If Iran could do anything other than prey on hapless commercial vessels, people might look at the situation differently. But they can't, and people see it for what it appears to be: illegitimate.
But they can't, and people see it for what it appears to be: illegitimate.
During the Revolutionary War British officers were aghast when American soldiers deliberately tried to shoot British officers during battle. It was considered uncivilized by the British to do this. People fight back any way that they are able to. It’s convenient for the superpower to say forms of warfare or striking back are “illegitimate” when those forms are contrary to how they want things to be fought.
It is not illegitimate for Iran to fight back the only way they can.
I think you can reasonably argue that, but (I'm guessing) that most people will disagree with you about the legitimacy of attempting to punish the USN by accosting unrelated merchant ships.
We look askance when others do to us as we do to them but we shouldn’t. It’s ok to admit that we (the U.S.) are hypocrites when it comes to this stuff. We decry (justly in my opinion) the Russian invasion of Ukraine while having engaged in even more pointlessly stupid and evil invasions of other nations (like Iraq).