We have the capacity to shoot them up, or down. Just stay away and no harm. Pick your poison. .
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I see a little of both sides. I’ve also been buzzed by Iranians in the straits over there back in the mid 2000’s. Here is an Iranian bird right over us that kept circling while a gunboat came right alongside for a while in 2007. This definitely isn’t new.
I was hesitant to agree with the USS Cole analogy. In that case it was a deliberate approach and detonate. The bright orange PFDs don’t scream terrorist. These guys are circling, pointing, watching, and generally being obnoxious. But seeing the types of boats they are using (ie: not clearly identified with insignia/markings) its maybe not so far-fetched on first approach. I’d like to assume the navy boys are prepared to stop any continued approach into their perimeter.
So if they are buzzing ships and generally harassing just shoot them? I don’t think so. But after all these years of doing this, which is clearly dangerous and provocative, is it unreasonable to take a more firm and deliberate public stance by the President/USN? I don’t think that is unreasonable at all. As for timing, I would agree that the optics agree with @DeckApe. Of course the “Why Now” questions is a two-way street. Why does Iran feel that a global pandemic is a great time to continue poking the bear?
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Wouldn’t that be the way to conduct a suicide attack? Paint the boats so they look just like the ‘normal’ boats that ‘normally’ come within danger close range but instead of veering off, they veer in?
Airliners strangely off course didn’t scream terrorist either until they slammed into the WTC towers.
Yeah, the boats appearance was what was weighting me towards agreeing with you. I still don’t think you just “shoot and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” And it was even subsequently stated that there was no actual change in the USN rules of engagement despite Trumps tweet. It still has to rise above the level of harassment.
I realize the time between harassment and attack is small here, and I am in no way envious of the UNS sailor on the trigger there.
Agree… My policy would be
With X and Y determined by the people qualified to make that call.
So if you agree that exactly what President said is not what should be done, why argue with everyone who also agrees he’s wrong.
It’s great that you have a reasonable suggestion for what he should do or say, but that’s not what he did or said.
You mentioned not cowering in shame like the last administration. As there was no actual change in policy, the only difference is that this President has said he instructed the navy to do something that would be an act of war.
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It’s not how I would do it but it beats not doing anything
So be it. Can’t let those boats get that close.
As I previously said, I wouldn’t have our ships there in the first place, but if you’re going to order them there, you can’t allow that level of lack of security.
Serious question then: What do you expect the outcome would be if we end up sinking one of their little gun boats? Just a continuation of the back-and-forth (they kill a contractor, we kill a general, they drop some bombs, etc)? Your feelings on Iran as a country have been stated previously, but do you truly think they have the stomach for more serious escalation? I know they commandeered another commercial ship recently, so obviously they’re not slowing down their agenda, but personally I’m not so sure a war is any more imminent that it ever was.
Common sense is not all that common!!
But this is just the oldest trick in the political playbook:
If you have problems at home, find an outside “enemy” to distract the public. If you don’t have one, provoke someone to make unfriendly gestures, then retaliate.
PS> Provocations between US and Iran has been going on for years and warships provoking each other has been going on for much longer.
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So have Germany, France and the UK for that matter, so what.
Inside enemies at home work, too. Immigration, Friday Night Massacres, and the usual liberal vs conservative fodder will also feature for the next six months. Unless there’s a vaccine, treatment or cure it’ll crescendo louder and louder until something goes boom.
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The Outrage Cycle:
https://terikanefield-blog.com/the-outrage-cycle/
It’s what I’ve called the Outrage Cycle. It’s a simple, effective formula. Trump says something outrageous and provocative designed to excite his base and rile his critics. Each time he does this, he accomplishes four things . . .
- He keeps his base excited
- He enrages his critics
- He batters democratic institutions, and
- He fulfills his campaign promise to “protect” his followers from their “enemies”
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Yeah? Did you read what I was commenting on?
USA afraid to use the big stick for fear of offending. You been running around smashing in skulls more or less non stop. How is that fear of offending? Offending who?
Fox & Friends is behind Trump’s tweet about an Iran order to the Navy
President Donald Trump, apparently responding to a Fox & Friends report, tweeted Wednesday morning that he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “destroy any and all Iranian gunboats” if they “harass” U.S. ships.
Fox & Friends ran a series of reports Wednesday morning about Iran launching its first military satellite into orbit. Those reports also referenced an April 15 incident in which 11 Iranian military vessels “repeatedly conducted dangerous and harassing approaches” to U.S. Navy ships in international waters in the Persian Gulf, according to a Navy press release.
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I’m super stoked that Steve Doocey is setting the foreign policy for our country 
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Maybe I’m biased but that leads me to believe these events are so common and insignificant they barely register on whatever periodic brief the President gets. If they become clickbait for infotainment I guess they became a matter of national urgency.
Eh, access is the currency of the realm.
Does anyone here not believe that US Naval vessels operating in that theater do not already have rules of engagement - especially to defend themselves against hostile threats? If the president wants to change those rules he can do it with a phone call. If he wants to threaten Iran to change their actions he can do that in a phone call as well.
This is just Trump being Trump making ad hoc announcements and tweets that he knows his base will support. This isn’t about the sailors, the navy or any strategic objective - this is just about Trump
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Looks good on paper but difficult to implement considering that a speedboat travelling at 45 kts covers 1/4 nm in 20 seconds.
Which is why I didn’t attempt to put numbers in for X and Y as I’m not qualified to know what’s appropriate.
ANYTHING on paper would be better than what’s going on now.
Which are woefully inadequate as they allow fast craft to approach that close.
Any changes made to those policies needs to be very very public so everybody involved (including the god-damned media) is made aware and can’t claim “orange man baaaaaaadddd” when the shooting starts.