Iranian Harassment of U.S. Navy Nothing New
The Navy said today that on December 19, the USS Whidbey Island was forced to fire warning shots during a confrontation with an Iranian boat in the Straight of Hormuz.
"One small (Iranian) craft was coming toward it, and it stopped after the Whidbey Island fired warning shots," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Much has also been made, by the Blame America First Liberals like Alan Colmes, for example, that the Navy doesn't know if the threatening message during last Sundays encounter even came from one of the boats involved. During that encounter, three U.S. warships were harassed by five Iranian speedboats, after the message "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," was heard.
But what difference does it make where the message came from? It certainly was no coincidence, whether it came from one of the boats or somewhere else. The intent of the message was clear, as were the actions of the speedboats. Any Commander in a similar situation must assume that the message is real and related to the erratic movements of the Iranian boats and act accordingly.
Apologists like Colmes aside, it's clear that the Iranians are trying to provoke our warships into firing on them. We know now that they had their own videotaped defense prepared to show to the world, just in case the Navy did so. This incident - and the recent ones with the HMS Cornwall and USS Whidbey Island - make the intention of the Iranian Guard obvious.
Somehow I just can't see three huge warships harassing and making runs at smaller, faster and more agile craft, but that's just me.
Also, the Pentagon today released the entire video of last Sunday's incident.
Relates posts:
Related posts:
Recent Comments