Iranian Speed Boats Harrasing US Naval Ships

I think its interesting no one's even brought up what happened to the Cole. The navy needs more authority and a right to defend itself if harassed in neutral watters, and the commanders/navy itself need to get their acts straight. It can be "oh we're being threatened, do we just take it?". It has to be "you threatened us, we warn you once, we WON'T warn you again...". I say its the no experience commanders and the PCism followers that have really handicapped things in this situation. It may take an incident for command to wake up on this, then again, NOTHING may happen. Its sad.

Hello bombnu, I hope you are not serious! You know, I was “expecting” this “incident” for nearly 6 months now, and especially after British “incident”. Why? Well here it is… Oval office failed to find proofs about Iranian Military Nuclear program. And, late last year’s Intelligence analysis based on covert operations was not the first one to declare that Iranians are not after Nuclear weapons. Intelligence estimates, reports and analysis since 2005 have been saying the same thing that there is no evidence of Iranian Clandestine Nuclear Program. Then last year, the Administration lowered the threshold for declaration of War against Iran by stating that any traceable considerable loss of American troops in Iraq by Iran will suffice. They tried to make links and conjectures but again, failed to come up with evidence. Does that mean that American Administration, controlled by some power hungry elites, will be silenced and they will stop finding excuses for attack!!??...No! Not at all. They will continue with the best of their abilities to find excuses even if that means forgery, lying, thuggry, innovation, or whatever it takes to convince ignorant and simple minded public that attack on Iran is in the best interest of America. That was precisely the reason, coupled with the fact that US naval activity increased in Persian Gulf, that I was expecting this “incident” for nearly 6 months. It surely reminded me of the Vietnamese’s PT Boats “incident” that never happened in history, but it surely provided an excuse for American Oligarchy to attack Vietnam. Who suffered? Vietnamese and American “People”… while American Oligarchy enjoyed the fruits of conflict by filling in their pockets and influence. I have found that American Presidential hopeful Ron Paul had suspected the same “incident” last year that a fake incident may be created to find public support to attack Iran. Guys on following link have summarized it better than me. It also includes video of Ron Paul. Take a look. http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/weden3.html Iranians have observed restraint with dignity, honor, patience and wisdom and I certainly applaud them for their conduct against American bullying and provocations especially since last two years be it capturing of Iranian diplomats, numerous border violations of British forces in south west, commissioning of second Air craft carrier in Persian Gulf or terroristic covert operations inside Iran in North-west, East and South-east.

Hello Bobmnu, This recent test of our patience and resolve is very troubling. In this instance, there is no question that our military personnell made the right decision. As for a specified barrier: I can't say that I'm in agreement with that. Here's the reason why ... A specified barrier cannot take into account the number of variables that need to be factored into such an impactful decision. This time it was speed boats. Next time it might be a fishing trawler, or a tugboat. Regardless of the vessel, I think the navy should assign mathematicians to calculate the avg. quantity of explosives that might be stowed on any number of different types of vessels. Then factor in how much potential damage might be caused by projectiles emanating from a hypothetical explosion, then establish designated exclusionary zones for specific types of watercraft. We can generalize about a worse-case scenario, and establish a specified safe-zone based on those calculations, but there will always be exceptions relating to available navigable water-space, and/or emergencies where a smaller vessels communications abilities might be down. Instead of binding our captains, we should give them the necessary information, and the authority to make split second, sound decisions based on not only the types of watercraft, but possible variable types of explosives, and the behavior of approaching vessels. One of the things that most bothered me about the incident last weekend was that those speedboats got within 5-6 seconds of our Naval vessels. This estimate was based on the possible speeds obtainable by that type of speedcraft. Had the boats been carrying explosives with deliberate projectile types of materials, a possible expolsion might have damaged our ships to the point of temporarily crippling them. Which, could have led to any number of ensuing ugly scenarios. Without hesitation, the U.S. Gov't needs to always give the boots on the ground, or in this case on the sea, the information and authority to gauge the level of the threat, and act accordingly. There is no doubt in my mind that the Captains of our three ships were telling themselves that they were in a lose-lose scenario, when it came to the reaction of Congress. Either they didn't act with sufficient force, thereby endangering the lives of the crew. Or, they were acting too threatening. Congressional back-seat drivers must make our officers very nervous, indeed! I say: arm our officers with the info they need to make the wisest decisions, without Congress interjecting. This was a military matter, our military is the best trained on the planet, and any investigations need to be carried out by the military itself. Only the eyes of the moment can truly gauge the level of the threat. Establishing specified regulations binds their ability to make the wisest decisions, based on their time-tested good judgement.

I think that anytime any boat approaches too closely to one of our ships that it should be challenged and then sunk if it persists. We need to take a zero tolerance policy with these Iranian boats. Maybe if we used the same tactics employed by Reagan then they would have no boats, and would be constanty rebuilding their little navy instead of harassing our ships. The decision must be left with the individual ship captains, and Congress needs to stop trying to micromanage the military...that is not their job anyway. I say sink their puny little navy and then blockade their harbors and patrol their coastline.

Hey Bobmnu, I guess these libs prescribe to the school of, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, Baffle 'em with BS". I agree with your premise here that regardless of what the real story was, Congress is not Commander in chief and they should not be determining how Ship Commanders in the field should engage threatening enemies. Iran is a little pipsqueak nation that would be nothing if not for oil. These same bleeding hearts that yell "No blood for oil," are the same ones who obstruct drilling in America. We should be EXPORTING oil. Soon the Chinese will be drilling off the coast of Florida and we can't. Then as soon as they spill and ruin the Florida coast I am personally gonna drag some bleeding @ss down to beach and shove his scrawny face in it. I'd like to hear how Anniepa justifies the way women are treated in Middle eastern Countries.