He is correct that we have few tankers over there, but that is because very few tankers fly the AMERICAN Flag. We should NOT be protecting any commercial ship unless it is flying the AMERICAN flag. Even if the owner is American, the ship should be registered in the US and not some country with a flag of convenience. All oil exported from the US should be on US flag vessels.
The problem with that is that absolutely insane regulation and taxation on the part of the US government makes it almost impossible for a company to have a competitive US-flagged merchant fleet. The Democrats crushed our merchant marine 50-plus years ago and nobody noticed.