U.S. Navy Authorized To Fire On Iranian Ships That Harass Them

[Mlodj]

LINK   

 

 

Quote

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has ordered the Navy to "shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats that harass U.S. ships, a directive that comes a week after the Navy reported a group of Iranian boats made "dangerous and harassing approaches” to American vessels in the Persian Gulf.  Trump did not cite a specific event in his tweet or provide details. The White House had no immediate comment. The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet referred questions about the tweet to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon referred questions to the White House.

Shortly before Trump’s tweet, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had put the Islamic Republic’s first military satellite into orbit, dramatically unveiling what experts described as a secret space program. That launch raised concerns among experts about whether the technology could be used to help Iran develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. Iran currently has short- and intermediate-range missiles.  Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, accused Trump of "bullying” and said the American president should focus on taking care of U.S service members infected with the coronavirus. The U.S. military had more than 2,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of last week, and at least two service members have succumbed to COVID-19, the disease the virus causes.  "Today, Americans must do their best to save those troops who are infected with coronavirus instead of bullying others,” Shekarchi said, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA.

U.S. Navy ships and Iranian Guard naval vessels occasionally have encounters in the Gulf that the U.S. calls unprofessional, but they rarely escalate or include an exchange of gunfire. Tehran views the heavy presence of American forces there as a security threat.  "I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump said in his tweet.  Last Wednesday, the U.S. Navy said Revolutionary Guard vessels repeatedly crossed the bows and sterns of several American ships at close range and high speed in the northern Gulf. The American vessels included the USS Paul Hamilton, a Navy destroyer and the USS Lewis B. Puller, a ship that serves as an afloat landing base. The ships were operating with U.S. Army Apache attack helicopters in international waters, the statement said.  The "dangerous and provocative actions increased the risk of miscalculation and collision ... and were not in accordance with the obligation under international law to act with due regard for the safety of other vessels in the area,” the Navy said in a statement.  According to the Navy, the Americans issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, fired five short blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise maker devices, but received no immediate response, the statement said. After about an hour, the Iranian vessels responded to the bridge-to-bridge radio queries, then maneuvered away.  Iran claimed the U.S. triggered that episode.  American commanders are trained to make nuanced and careful judgment calls about how to respond to incidents at sea. Rather than immediately resort to the use of deadly force, commanders are expected to act based on the specific circumstances, including the threat to their own crews and adherence to the international laws of warfare. Generally, as in the case of last Wednesday’s incident, warships will issue warnings by a variety of means, including via bridge-to-bridge radio, before taking more direct action. 

Tensions between the nations escalated after the Trump administration withdrew from the international nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran. Last May the U.S. sent thousands more troops, including long-range bombers and an aircraft carrier, to the Middle East in response to what it called a growing threat of Iranian attacks on U.S. interests in the region.  The tensions spiked when U.S. forces killed Iran's most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, in January. Iran responded with a ballistic missile attack on a base in western Iraq where U.S. troops were present. No Americans were killed but more than 100 suffered mild traumatic brain injuries from the blasts. Also, Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq continue to threaten American forces there.

[20dawk4life]

WW3!!!!

[Toastrel]

President Drumpf said he authorized that Iranians ships be shot down.

[Toastrel]

2 hours ago, Prime said:

Praise the Lord, Toaster is back!

Thank you, good to be back.

[lynched1]

Good.

The last time there was a confrontation the Iranians were allowed to board and publicly mount the sailors.

 

[Gannan]

Shoot down boats...

[Guest]

Covid / Economy distraction 

[devpool]

He might have given them authorization but they will never do it, nor should they unless the Iranians actually do something.

[lynched1]

22 minutes ago, devpool said:

He might have given them authorization but they will never do it, nor should they unless the Iranians actually do something.

You mean like attempting to board our ship?

[devpool]

14 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

You mean like attempting to board our ship?

Pretty sure it's been well established that those sailors made errors that put them in that situation 

[lynched1]

1 minute ago, devpool said:

Pretty sure it's been well established that those sailors made errors that put them in that situation 

Pretty sure they were ordered to stand down.

The drone they hacked should have been taken out as well.

 

[devpool]

7 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

Pretty sure they were ordered to stand down.

The drone they hacked should have been taken out as well.

 

They made a bunch of errors that resulted in them entering Iranian waters which led to them being detained. If they were ordered to stand down it was because they had already entered Iran's waters and had they tried anything stupid it would have ended up even worse. A couple of them got NJP'ed because of their F ups

[lynched1]

1 minute ago, devpool said:

They made a bunch of errors that resulted in them entering Iranian waters which led to them being detained. If they were ordered to stand down it was because they had already entered Iran's waters and had they tried anything stupid it would have ended up even worse. A couple of them got NJP'ed because of their F ups

Allowing them to board was the mistake.

[devpool]

2 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

Allowing them to board was the mistake.

Resisting could have gotten them killed. They were going to be detained regardless if they let them board of if they got dragged to an Iranian harbor

[lynched1]

3 minutes ago, devpool said:

Resisting could have gotten them killed. They were going to be detained regardless if they let them board of if they got dragged to an Iranian harbor

I highly doubt that. The Iranians would have never seen port again.

[devpool]

6 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

I highly doubt that. The Iranians would have never seen port again.

Those sailors were completely in the wrong, you can tell by the fact that they got punished for what they did and the government had to come in and apologize for them. They put the government in a terrible position and there was nothing that could be done after they had already screwed up. Anything other than them being peacefully detained would likely have been seen as an act of aggression. How do you think we would react if some country's military entered our territorial waters? Definitely not letting them off with a stern warning I'll tell you that much.

[lynched1]

1 minute ago, devpool said:

Anything other than them being peacefully detained would likely have been seen as an act of aggression. 

Good. They've been nothing less than provocateurs since the Carter administration. F them.

[PoconoDon]

17 hours ago, lynched1 said:

Good. They've been nothing less than provocateurs since the Carter administration. F them.

I agree. My patience for the Iranian Theocracy is somewhere between little and none. Upsetting them is small potatoes.

[Dave Moss]

Imagine how much differently this would have turned out if Carter hadn’t let the Shah come to  the U.S. for a medical procedure.

[Mlodj]

27 minutes ago, PoconoDon said:

I agree. My patience for the Iranian Theocracy is somewhere between little and none. Upsetting them is small potatoes.

The oil price war that Saudi Arabia just unleashed on the world is going to crush the Iranian economy this year.  I'll be shocked of the two countries don't openly go to war in the next several years rather than fighting the proxy wars they have to this point.

[PoconoDon]

Just now, Mlodj said:

The price war that Saudi Arabia just unleashed on the world is going to crush the Iranian economy this year.  I'll be shocked of the two countries don't openly go to war in the next several years rather than fighting the proxy wars they have to this point.

We'll have to wait and see what the impact is on Iran, but the outcome you suggest is a possibility.

[TEW]

34 minutes ago, Mlodj said:

The oil price war that Saudi Arabia just unleashed on the world is going to crush the Iranian economy this year.  I'll be shocked of the two countries don't openly go to war in the next several years rather than fighting the proxy wars they have to this point.

My only question is if Iran will risk open war with the possibility of the US stepping in... its one thing to fight it out with Saudis, it’s another thing when the yanks decide to get involved. 

[Mlodj]

30 minutes ago, PoconoDon said:

We'll have to wait and see what the impact is on Iran, but the outcome you suggest is a possibility.

Iran is already hurting under U.S. sanctions and the Saudi oil glut means shutting down oil wells and restarting them.  That's a process generally measured in years.  Of the two countries Saudi Arabia is ultimately a greater threat to us.

[Mlodj]

17 minutes ago, TEW said:

My only question is if Iran will risk open war with the possibility of the US stepping in... its one thing to fight it out with Saudis, it’s another thing when the yanks decide to get involved. 

I think it's more likely the U.S. holds back and points and laughs as they fight it out.  Our support for the Saudis was based on our oil needs and that of our allies. Nobody in the gubbiment is under any illusions about how despicable they are.  Our need has ended, and they are trying their best to cripple us and reimpose that dependency, while we are turning into a new period of isolationism and letting the allies fend for themselves.  I also don't think it matters whether it's a D or R in the Oval Office, NOBODY likes the Saudis. 

BTW, oil supplies being cut off from a Gulf War are ultimately most damaging to China; they have the longest supply chain which has to go through a string of countries that generally hate them (India, Vietnam, Japan, etc.... say hello).

[TEW]

39 minutes ago, Mlodj said:

I think it's more likely the U.S. holds back and points and laughs as they fight it out.  Our support for the Saudis was based on our oil needs and that of our allies. Nobody in the gubbiment is under any illusions about how despicable they are.  Our need has ended, and they are trying their best to cripple us and reimpose that dependency, while we are turning into a new period of isolationism and letting the allies fend for themselves.  I also don't think it matters whether it's a D or R in the Oval Office, NOBODY likes the Saudis. 

BTW, oil supplies being cut off from a Gulf War are ultimately most damaging to China; they have the longest supply chain which has to go through a string of countries that generally hate them (India, Vietnam, Japan, etc.... say hello).

It’s certainly possible that we would stay out of it, but if you are Iran it is literally an existential calculation. Even if the US doesn’t put boots on the ground, we can slam our fist on the scale with air strikes and basically guarantee a Saudi victory. There’s also the issue of Israel. They’d love to see Iran fall, and they have a lot of influence over our policy int he region.