After last week’s court-ordered Iranian seizure of a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship, the Pentagon responded to a brief financial panic with an ill-conceived plan to accompany every US cargo ship, and later some allied nation’s cargo ships, through Iranian waters.

Even though there was no conceivable reason for this move, the Pentagon was keen to hype it several times over the past week, but today has apparently gotten bored and is cancelling the mission.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Warren said the decision to cancel the mission came after accompanying several ships through the Strait of Hormuz without incident, which is unsurprising since there was no suggestion by Iran that any other ships but the single Maersk-owned vessel even might be seized.

Still, the end of the operation caps off a week during which false rumors of a captured US ship sparked a needless surge in oil prices and gave the Pentagon several excuses to make high-profile public statements about their naval involvement around Iranian waters. US warships will remain parked off the Iranian coast. as they have for years, pending orders to attack.