US warships patrolling around Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf have been a sore spot for a long time, but the Iranian Revolutionary Guard suggested Monday that the US is improving its behavior within the region.
Rear Admiral Ali Ozmaei told Tasnim News Agency that the previous harassment seems to be over, with US warships paying attention to international regulations, and avoiding approaching Iranian territorial waters.
That’s a big change, as in the past, it seemed US warships made a point to speed toward the Iranian maritime border, then issue angry condemnations when Iranian speedboats were scrambled to see why.
Such confrontations have often been used by US officials to play up the idea that Iran is “aggression” against the Navy by reacting when US warships get close to Iranian waters. A decline in such incidents is a very good sign, avoiding any accidental naval clashes.
Well maybe they are, USN has a poor record recently of navigation. In the gulf the USS Porter (most sophisticated ..blah blah… highly trained.. blah blah) was run over by a supertanker that somehow managed to sneak up on it. Maybe out boys should more or less stick to traffic lanes and go the speed of traffic for a while.
or do more navigating and less masterbating
that’s a seamans joke
Is this since Trump took over? I’ve not heard of any problems since then.
He’s concentrating on destroying the nuke deal.
But not, it would seem, trying to start a war.
Really? You think Israel will be satisfied with anything less?
Trump’s abandonment of the Syrian rebels has been nothing short of a disaster for the neo-con agenda. The Israel lobby is powerful, but it’s not omnipotent. Trump won’t start ww3 for them.
The complete abandonment of Syria would have been disaster for the neocons. The open ended presence was payback. If we think we can do a bloody nose attack on North Korea, who has nukes, I’m sure Trump’s administration thinks it can do Iran without risking WW3.
A meal is eaten one bite at a time. The complete abandonment of Syria would have been too much for the war lobby to swallow whole. But incrementally, it is being done. The Kurds and their Pentagon funded mercenary auxilleries are fighting back hard against the Turkish assault, but beyond the short term they have nothing going for them. They will be defeated, and America will be chased out of Syria. Defeat will be swallowed in a series of unavoidable portions.
In terms of NK vs Iran, its not so clear. North Korea, with a population of 25m, could conceivably be invaded and occupied. Once their government fell, they’d be less rebellious than the Iraqis had been, especially if they were unified with South Korea who would pick up the reconstruction bill. The only requirement is knocking out any nuclear armed projectiles in the first strike, which the Pentagon think they might be able to do, though China entering the war on NKs side is another complication.
Iran is another issue. Population 80 million. The terrain as favourable to guerilla warfare as it is in Afghanistan. There’s no way it can be invaded and occupied in a straightforward manner. Unless an immediate surrender is achieved (which it won’t be), Iranian missiles will close the Straits of Hormuz to shipping, and so cut off 40% of the world’s oil supply. To stop this would require a full invasion, and such an invasion would be by far the most costly since WW2, America would not have any international support, and would quite possibly lose outright as they are in the process of doing in Syria, and as they did in Vietnam.
It’s not an attractive prospect to any non-neocon in the US.