The Long Arm of Fustercluck 2015
Airmen work on an RQ-4 Global Hawk. The Iranians shot one of these down today. (Ramon Adelan/U.S. Air Force/AP)
Remember that pallet of cash sent to the Iranian government a while back by the Obama administration? And while you’re jiggling your memory banks into coughing up that annoying item, before that, there was the capture, before that, of a 5th Fleet US Navy riverine boat and crew in the Persian Gulf. Remember that one?
Well, below is a link to the full story with all its flaws and annoyances, including poor training, lack of maintenance of equipment, lack of replacement of broken equipment, not properly preparing to enter a contested area with proper armaments and ammunition, etc., etc., etc. The list is not exactly endless, but it is relevant to what is going on now in the Persian Gulf, most recently with that attempt to destroy a Kuwaiti oil tanker and the shoot-down of a US military drone. Iran’s government is currently attempting to claim the entire Persian Gulf as its turf, which is a very real threat to shipping in that area.
It’s a good read, and yes, the article is long and detailed but it explains a lot about what is going on now.
Trump withheld a strike against Iran over the drone shootdown. Iran is hinting at more serious stuff, poking the wolf, as it were. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-iran-usa/trump-says-not-talking-boots-on-the-ground-if-action-taken-against-iran-idUSKCN1TR1Z4
This may have something to do with China’s intent to expand its domination of South Asia.
Keep your eyes and ears open. It ain’t over yet.
Category: Iran, Military issues, Navy
Very interesting. This appears to be more of the legacy of oblowme’s continued adding of rancid cherries to the sh^t sundae he was making of the US Armed Services.
Convince me otherwise.
I was in Hormuz last year with Maersk Line when a US flag ship was harassed by Iranian gunboats demanding they stop for boarding… in international waters.
Interesting and scary things ahead.
Yes, indeed. There is more than just this, and it involves China’s aggressive expansion. Workin’ on it.
One thing Iran has done is really piss President Trump off, I’m sure we’ll see something happen, but in the meantime we need to unfuck our Navy from what the previous Administration did to it.
Reading that article reminded me of the time we ran a convoy from El Toro to Bridgeport for cold weather training. I kid you not we broke down 5 times. I’m talking on the side of the road for a couple hours broke down. In one instance an axle broke on one of our 5 tons which was carrying NOTHING. On that convoy we brought 2 wreckers with us. I shit you not, when we limped in to Bridgeport, one of the wreckers was towing the other one. I couldn’t help but think that if we deploy overseas we’d be taking these heaps of broken, barely running shit with us. It was an unsettling thought to say the least.
The money we gave to Iran was not our money it was their money ….. just to clear that up.
Yeah; didn’t some US citizens file suit and try get to paid from it—1979 to ‘81 embassy hostages?
A pipeline or canal through the UAE to bypass Hormuz would go a long way towards cutting off Iran’s ability to control the Gulf region. In a twist of irony, the UAE could use Iranian kafala workers as cheap labor to build the canal.