US sends ships, planes to Persian Gulf as tension mounts

The United States has quietly moved significant military reinforcements into the Persian Gulf to deter the Iranian military from any possible attempt to shut the Strait of Hormuz and to increase the number of fighter jets capable of striking deep into Iran if the standoff over its nuclear program escalates.

“The message to Iran is, ‘Don’t even think about it,’ ” one senior Defense Department official said. “Don’t even think about closing the strait. We’ll clear the mines. Don’t even think about sending your fast boats out to harass our vessels or commercial shipping. We’ll put them on the bottom of the gulf.” Like others interviewed, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the diplomatic and military situation.

Is it just me, or is this entire situation an exercise in lunacy?

The US is pretty much telling Iran "we are going to place an embargo on your country.....and if you try to defend your sovereignty we will bomb you!"

It seems like arrogance and machismo will overshadow common sense and respect. I hope this is just another action that falls flat on it's face, but it seems like we are begging for war and doing everything to provoke it.

God help us all.

Link

And the Navy, after a crash development program, has moved a converted amphibious transport and docking ship, the Ponce, into the Persian Gulf to serve as the Pentagon’s first floating staging base for military operations or humanitarian assistance.

So after the US has bombed the sh1t out of Iran, they will send in some humanitarian support. How thoughtful.


That's actually a really good source article, which surprised me as it's a mainstream source. I'd highly recommend reading the whole thing. The PTB allude to a number of factors, and conclude openly that it is a 'complex dance' involving them, the Iranians, and the Israelis.

We will see only with the passage of time, how this one plays out.

LIke riding an insane horse to a burning stable.

Its like a car crash you see coming, we all know its gona happen, all we can do is watch and hope its not as bad as we all think it will be.

reply to post by FlyInTheOintment


It is a very interesting article but I did not enjoy the section that talks about Romney/Obama. I could care less about how Romney tries to ridicule Obama when we all know he would be doing the exact same thing.

Other then that, I found the piece to contain more information than in a normal MSM war propaganda release.

What concerns me personally is that an "anonymous" insider is issuing such beligirently aggressive threats to Iran, that's when alarm bells start ringing with me.

For all we know, the author nor a representative even spoke with a defence official at all and is all a complete load of crap. I'm no fan of the MSM but atleast when they quote officials you can verify what level of authority a particular statement was issued from; regardless of the truth in the matter.

I think we'd see a fresher round of sanctions before military action for now.

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


I hope that war is not in the near future as well, but we all know that sanctions and embargoes lead to war anyway.

Perhaps it's best if we leave Iran alone to live as free, sovereign people and take care of ourselves before we stick our noses into the affairs of others.

Too late for that.......The american people are stuck with a war in the middle east, because we are making huge profits selling arms to the Saudis the Omanis ,Quatar etc....all buying us war matierial

reply to post by sheepslayer247


Did you even read the quotes you added. Nothing in there about a naval blokade there at all. It was all about keeping the straits open for business, and protecting commercial shipping along with its own, not shutting it down.

“Don’t even think about closing the strait.
We’ll clear the mines.

Don’t even think about sending your fast boats out to harass our vessels or commercial shipping.
We’ll put them on the bottom of the gulf.”

reply to post by palg1

Did you even read the quotes you added. Nothing in there about a naval blokade there at all.

Yes I did.

Did you read my OP? If you did you would see that a naval blockade was never mentioned! I invite you to re-read the OP and correct me if I am wrong.

The key here is:

“This is not only about Iranian nuclear ambitions, but about Iran’s regional hegemonic ambitions,” the senior Defense Department official said.

In other words: Iran will not prevail, we(US) are the only ones who can go and dominate other nations.

It is isrian people's fault.

They and ONLY they are accepting a RELIGIOUS NUT as supreme leader and a monkey like Ahmadinejad.

Both of the above want NUKES.They know that because they are insane, they need nukes.A normal regime will NOT NEED any fcking nukes.

USA and NATO do not invade countries because those countries leaders are sane people...but because those leaders are INSANE.

Iran get nukes, Kamenei is happy.After couple months he think USA is weak because did not attacked them.
Sometime after, it is EITHER Israel that nuke the # out of Iran or Iran that does the same to Israel.Than, byebye world.


Soooo...let the bombs fall in Syria and Iran, on their military and nuclear sites.There is still little time for SYRIANS and IRANIANS to throw down their dictators and avoid the #storm.


Oh, btw...last time I checked, Cuba is 100% against USA and Cuba does NOT have nukes.Any idea why NATO didn't invaded Cuba? It is because their leaders are SANE people? It is because Russia have their back?

WHATEVER the answer, there are ALWAYS different ways to protect from NATO and USA, and not only having nukes.

Protecting shipping in the gulf has been on since the tankers wars of the 80s. Not likely to end. Shooting attacking boats is nothing new.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


I agree, US is probably the best definition of a hypocrite. Who are they to determine who may have nukes, and who may not? Or even Nuclear Energy, I myself don't even think they want bombs. For a big part Iranians are quite peaceful. If you can't see that TPTB control Al-Qaeda and the whole issue of 'War on Terror', you are quite possibly blind. Not directed at you OP, just in general.

I think them saying that if Iran decides to close their port off and defend themselves, they are are like

We'll bomb you..

When if things were reversed and Iran tried to come here like that; US would flip the hell out, and declare that they are trying to terrorize or bomb us. Don't you think that we look like terrorists to them?