Posted on 01/22/2007 3:38:18 PM PST by blam
Iran Prepares Public for Possible Clash
Monday January 22, 2007 11:01 PM
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran conducted missile tests Monday as its leadership stepped up warnings of a possible military confrontation with the United States.
In another show of defiance, Tehran said Monday it had barred 38 United Nations nuclear inspectors from entering the country, apparently in retaliation for a U.N. Security Council resolution last month imposing limited sanctions on Iran.
The drum-beating suggested Iran does not intend to back down in its standoff with the West. It could also aim to rally the public behind the government and silence increasingly bold criticism at home of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's antagonism toward the United States.
Iran's leaders have touted the possibility of a U.S. attack since President Bush announced on Jan. 9 the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf region, a move U.S. officials have said is a show of strength directed at Iran.
Last month, the Security Council imposed limited trade sanctions on Iran over its refusal to cease uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear energy or bombs.
The Iranian military on Monday began five days of maneuvers near the northern city of Garmsar, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran, state television reported. The military tested its Zalzal-1 and Fajr-5 missiles, the report said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Well this will help his hold on the country.
We are preparing to fight the United States, all prepare to die.
Ahmadinejad may think he needs a war to keep his job-his peace time administration is not going well. It remains to be seen if he can gin up public support for a war. He should realize that no matter how unpopular the war in Iraq is with the American public, if he pulls a 'Pearl Harbor' on the U.S. or Israel, he's toast.
Yeah but now they have more kids to let die.
Only problem is that with the problems he is having they may string him up before the war starts.
Thing is the Iranian populace can remember when their country was an advanced Western leaning state with modern medicine and more freedom under the Shah prior to Jimmy Carter and wishes for the United States to rescue it from its cruel and murderous tormentors.......but the Iranians have to help themselves to some extent. The United States cannot play Santa Claus to the world.
"Iran Prepares Public For Possible Clash"
We should call it "Operation Rock the Casbah", then.
:)
Lil' Stinky is about the get his hinny kicked.
Ahmadinejad he don't like it, rock the casbah, rock the casbah.....
There's no way in hell the US is going to launch an unprovoked attack on Iran. Why is it every tin-pot dictator can leverage power by saying 'The US is out to get us.' The US certainly has major issues with anyone who doesn't provide human rights to their citezens but, to project those issues onto the oppressed populations is silliness.
Just before 5 p.m. on 14 April 1988, USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) found itself in a minefield laid in the central Persian Gulf's main eastbound shipping channel. While attempting to work clear, the guided missile frigate struck an Iranian M-08 naval mine.
The explosion broke the ship's keel and blew a hole in the hull beneath the waterline. Superheated gases tore through the ship's exhaust vents until a fireball burst from the ship's stack, lighting fires on four decks.
The engineroom and one auxiliary machinery space flooded immediately. A third space began to fill — threatening to send the ship to the bottom.
The explosion sent a fireball up through the ship's stack, where fires would burn for hours, blackening its skin and the Engineering "E." Over the next five hours, the crew of the Roberts labored to stanch the flooding and extinguish fires on four decks.
When the fires threatened the 76mm gun magazine, the crew formed a "bucket brigade" to pass the shells up onto the deck and forward to the forecastle.
With its engines dead, the Roberts limped free of the minefield on its auxiliary thrusters. The next day, 15 April, the tug Hunter took the frigate in tow and headed for Dubai.
While underway to Dubi ,with the hull creaking and groaning, Capt. Rinn judged the ship too unstable to let his sailors sleep inside. So they slept on cots on the deck.
Meanwhile, Navy divers recovered other mines whose serial numbers matched the ones found aboard the Iranian minelayer Iran Ajr several months earlier. Planning for the retaliation, which was dubbed Operation Praying Mantis, began immediately, and three groups of U.S. warships were assembled in the Gulf. On the morning of 18 April, four days after the mining, they were ready to strike.
TIMELINE
All times approximate, and given in local Persian Gulf time
First light
The Roberts' SH-60 helicopter, now flying from the USS Trenton (LPD 14) lifts from the deck of the amphibious transport dock. The aircraft, call sign Magnum 447, heads off to give the targets a final visual check, and to stand by to evacuate wounded troops.
8:00 a.m.
A few minutes after delivering a radio warning, the destroyers of Surface Action Group Bravo open fire on the Sassan oil platform, which was being used by Iranian forces as a command-and-control center for attacks on Gulf shipping.
8:05 a.m.
The ships of Surface Action Group Charlie open fire on the Sirri oil platform, which is also being used to control Iranian maritime attacks.
9:25 a.m.
Twin-rotor CH-46 helicopters deliver U.S. Marines to the Sassan platform, where they collect intelligence and set demolition charges. Plans are scratched to send Navy SEALs to the Sirri platform, which was set afire by the bombardment. Marines attacked, occupied, and then destroyed the platform
1:30 a.m.
The Iranian patrol boat Joshan ignores radio warnings and approaches SAG Charlie. About 45 minutes later, Joshan fires a U.S.-made Harpoon missile — the remnant of a pre-Revolutionary arms purchase by the Iranian shah. Some 13 miles away, the U.S. ships fire chaff and dodge the incoming weapon. They return fire with Harpoons and Standard missiles, sinking Joshan in the world's first missile duel between warships.
12:50 p.m.
A pair of Iranian F-4 fighters approach the cruiser Wainwright, which chases them off with a pair of Standard missiles.
1:30 p.m.
Iranian Boghammar speedboats attack the Scan Bay, a Panamanian jack-up barge with 15 American workers in the Mubarak oil field off the United Arab Emirates. Through a lengthy commo hookup, President Reagan himself authorizes a strike against the boats — the first time U.S. forces had intervened to stop an attack on a non-U.S. flagged vessel in the Gulf, and a harbinger of a formal policy to come. Two A-6E Intruders and an F-14 Tomcat are dispatched to attack; SAG Bravo provides a vector.
2:25 p.m.
The A-6s sink the lead Boghammar with Rockeye cluster bombs. Four other boats flee to the Iranian-controlled Abu Musa island and beach themselves.
3:30 p.m.
U.S. A-6s and warships attack the Iranian frigate Sahand with coordinated bombs and missiles. The frigate will sink several hours later.
5:15 p.m.
The Iranian frigate Sabalan fires at an A-6, which dodges the missile and returns to drop a 500-pound bomb down the ship's exhaust stack, leaving it dead in the water. Top U.S. defense officials in Washington, who are monitoring the fight, decide not to sink a third Iranian warship. They tell U.S. ships and aircraft to lay off Sabalan, and Iranian tugs eventually tow the damaged frigate back to the Bandar Abbas naval base
~John (I was in Vietnam) Kerry, 2004 Presidential debate
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