Posted on 01/16/2016 8:29:44 AM PST by darkwing104
On Jan 12th, Iran captured 2 American Patrol boats claiming that the vessels were in Iranian territorial waters.
U.S. officials said that the incident happened near Farsi Island in the middle of the Persian Gulf. They suggested that some type of mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to run aground where they were picked up by Iran. The current spin is that straying into Iranian waters was a “mistake†on the part of U.S. sailors. Defense Secretary Ash Carter noted that a “navigation error†was ultimately to blame.
Iran accused the sailors of trespassing but American officials said Tehran has assured them that the crew and vessels would be returned safely and promptly. A senior defense official tells Fox News that there is no timeline for the sailors’ release but that it would not be before daybreak the next day. They were released unharmed 16 hours after being captured with their vessels.
Money, Not Diplomacy
Democrats were out in full force trying to do damage control on what is truly a humiliating moment. John Kerry thanked the Iranians for their cooperation and quick response in releasing the sailors. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believes the negotiations that produced the recent deal concerning Tehran’s nuclear program helped smooth the way to release the American sailors. The actual motivation by the Iranian regime was money. Iran is set to receive $100 billion in frozen assets if the nuclear agreement goes into effect. The money could have been delayed as long American military personnel were held in Iranian territory.
So Called Apology
The State Department insists that no official apology will not be extended from the U.S. As the government of Iran controls the narrative within their country,
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
As long as the Iranians have our vessels - this will continue to be an embarrassment to the Democrat Party.
False humility. This went down just about exactly as they (bammy and his cohorts in crime) intended it to go down.
This was a moment that showed the world Iran can be trusted, they are good guys, ready to play nice in the international community. You couldn't have scripted it better in Hollywood. (a-la "Wag The Dog") That's the problem, this was too perfect. The timing relative to the sanctions coming off, the number and type of boats (oddly enough no-one has mentioned weapons on board, were they unarmed?), even had a female sailor making a cameo.
The only mistake, if you can call it that, is that they apparently didn't quite get their story straight on which revision of the script they were going with:
Early on we heard one of the boats ran out of fuel and drifted. This with a boat listed as having greater than 250 nmi range on a trip of gee, just about 250 nmi. Yet the place they "ran out of gas" was only about 1/2 there. Problem with that story is the other boat, why didn't it simply tow the first boat along or at least keep them in international waters?
Then "the story" was one of the boats was disabled and drifted. Same basic problem as with the out of gas story - what about the second boat?
Now "the story" is they made a navigational error. As others have pointed out, these kind of small boat transits are planned extensively because you are in a relatively small craft on a big sea. So how many people would have to screw up the plan to put them in proximity of an Iranian island? I would guess a dozen or more ashore. Then once the transit started, two boats, two compasses, two sets of charts, two GPSes, at least a couple of people on each boat tracking their progress... Nope, I don't buy the "navigational error" story either. Requires too many mistakes at too many stages by too many people. Extremely unlikely.
How were the boats allowed to go on their way without repairs?
"A sailor may have punched the wrong coordinates into the GPS and they wound up off course. Or the crew members may have taken a shortcut into Iranian waters as they headed for the refueling ship, officials said."
So that is all, nothing to see here, move along......sarc 
The problem I have with the GPS/Nav theory -— small boats like this probably shouldn’t be out of sight of land. They are designed for rivers primarily and only draw 3 ft of water. If there’s any kind of surface swell their 45 knot top speed can’t really be used.
They are also twin-engine water jets. I could see one engine running rough, but what about the other? One boat could have covered the other’s withdraw once the situation was recognized. Air cover would have guaranteed that.
This looks like another “stand down” order was given, only the Iranians instead of rendering assistance decided to treat it as an illegal border crossing and got the video humiliating the sailors, thus double-crossing their buddy Barak.
I watched a video where Louie Gohmert said Ash Carter said that he and John Francois called the Iranians and told them we had two boats lost and could they help find them. I call that treason.
Thinking of my own time leading small boat detachments, I wonder why they got there in the first place? Was no one paying attention? They even have GPS now. There were two boats, so one could have towed the other. Back in my Old Navy even if I was leading LCM-8 landing craft without radar, I would have had a chart and noted danger bearings. Maybe they should have apologized, but I doubt it?
Could be the Iranians have a different definition of territorial waters to which they want this Administration and our Navy to subscribe? That seems more likely.
Finally how could the Navy lose track of these boats? Why were the crews not initiating contact? During an amphibious exercise my wave of assault boats were swallowed by a fog. When I saw that fog coming I made sure the flag ship could vector us back to our LPD.
The events with the two riverine boats directed my memory back to the Cold War, which involved Communist China as well as the Soviet Union. We had a destroyer squadron stationed in Taiwan that was discontinued by the time I joined my LST in Japan. As a substitute every time a ship stationed in Yokosuka Japan went down to Vietnam it went through the Taiwan Straits. Our captain made it clear that if any ChiCom ship tried to intercept us we would fight. The prospect was not that exciting because our heaviest armament were three dual 3â€50cal anti-aircraft mounts. But the Pueblo incident was on everyone’s mind and that was going to be our response.
As far as I am concerned everything we have been told by this Administration and their acolytes in the Navy is a lie.
Here is a link to the best article I have found so far about the boats. http://www.boblonsberry.com/writings.cfm?go=4
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