Iranian test of wills

I'm seriously surprised, after what happened to the USS Cole, that no one here was killed:

An Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy passing near Iranian waters, then vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire, the top U.S. Navy commander in the area said Monday.

No shots were fired an an Iranian official in Tehran said the incident amounted to "something normal."

Bush administration officials complained that the Iranian actions amounted to a dangerous provocation, but one private analyst said the Iranians may have believed they were acting defensively in a narrow waterway that is heavily trafficked by commercial ships, including oil vessels.

The incident raised new tensions between Washington and Tehran as President Bush prepared to depart Tuesday on his first major trip to the Middle East.

The three U.S. warships — cruiser USS Port Royal, destroyer USS Hopper and frigate USS Ingraham — were headed into the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Hormuz on what the U.S. Navy called a routine passage inside international waters when they were approached by five small high-speed vessels believed to be from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.

The Iranians "maneuvered aggressively" in the direction of the U.S. ships, said Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, which patrols the Gulf and is based at nearby Bahrain. The U.S. ship commanders took a series of steps toward firing on the boats, which approached to within 500 yards, but the Iranians suddenly fled back toward their shore, Cosgriff said.

Cosgriff was not precise about the U.S. ships' location but indicated they were about three miles outside Iran's territorial waters, which extend 12 miles from its shores, headed in a westerly direction after having passed the narrowest point in the straits.

At one point the U.S. ships received a threatening radio call from the Iranians, "to the effect that they were closing (on) our ships and that the ships would explode — the U.S. ships would explode," Cosgriff said.

"Subsequently, two of these boats were observed dropping objects in the water, generally in the path of the final ship in the formation, the USS Ingraham," he added. "These objects were white, box-like objects that floated. And, obviously, the ship passed by them safely."

The boxes were not retrieved, so U.S. officials do not know whether they posed an actual threat. Cosgriff the U.S. ship commanders were moving through a standard series of actions — including radio calls to the Iranians that went unheeded — but did not reach the point of firing warning shots.

"We take this deadly seriously," Cosgriff told a Pentagon news conference via video link from Bahrain.

Actually, I don't think "we" take this seriously at all. 

Those dipsh*t dinghy drivers ought to be commiserating with their 72 virgins about now and instead they've headed back home to tell their wide-eyed fellow Islamists that they've stared down the great Satan and lived to tell about it.

We'll see more of this.  Guaranteed.

The pacifists and peace-niks will, on the one hand, admire the restraint shown until that moment they realize they're praising Bushitler and then they'll attempt to figure out a way to agree with the Jihadists at the weakness being shown while also trying hard not to look like they've sided with fanatics.  But we can't deny reality can we?

In the mean-time, we're in the midst of that process that will decide who the next Commander in Chief will be and the odds on favorite from the Democratic side is a guy who will, beyond doubt, show even more weakness.  He'll talk to these lunatics and his mere words will bring peace.  Yea... right.

The war against the Jihadists is far from over and today they've garnered a victory on the propaganda battlefield.  Should be good for recruitment.

But rest easy America... a new Commander in Chief will soon be crowned.

Comments

[Mommynator]

I think this was a test to see if we would respond in kind. That the ships received orders to blow these cowards out of the water, and that our ships were seen training their guns on the little dinghies and their drivers, showed that we're serious about our defense.

Part of me wanted to see them blasted out of the water, but I'm not sure this was the place to draw that line yet. Yet.

Iran is cruising.

[Jeremy]

This is how I look at it...The USA are like whites and Iran is like the blacks when it comes to dealing with the race issue. Iran can get away with so much and come out lookking great because too many people in the USA are afraid of doing what needs to be done because they are afraid of being politically correct or that it will prevent them from getting elected.