Iran unable to block Hormuz

Middle East Newsline ^ | 2006 Apr 26

[JasonC]

If the US decides to blockade Iran, we aren't going to give a rat's rumpus what flag a ship is flying as it approaches Iran. It will be stopped and ordered to turn about, and sunk if it does not comply.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Hopefully the phalanx close-support systems will work well. Maybe the latest incarnation of Patriots missiles?

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

The tried mining the straits back in '88. After the guided missile frigate "Samuel B. Roberts" was almost sunk, the U.S. responded and in one day pretty much handed Iran's navy back to them on a platter. The final tally was 2 Iranian capital ships, as many as 6 speedboats and 2 (temporarily) wrecked oil platforms. The U.S. lost one Cobra Helicopter which crashed into the sea (no evidence that it was shot down).

I think, in this case, that the worst thing that the Iranians could do would to actually cause some damage to the U.S. In such a case, I seriously doubt that the U.S. would leave much of an offensive capability anywhere along their coastline. They could also occupy some Iranian strongholds and oil platforms. This wouldn't do much for their ability to get cash.

[nuconvert]

Always interesting when an older thread is resurrected.

I didn't mean so much that Iran would necessarily have to do damage to us. But that I think they're willing to sink their own ships to block Hormuz, if necessary.

[Cheburashka]

Additionally, whenever you hear about technology being employed by countries from the Middle East with the exception of Israel, you only need to pay serious attention if their Russian "advisers" are going to be on site to employ it. If not, you need not worry because they will be either too scared or too ignorant to operate it.
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I suggest not resting on past laurels, because all laurels show is how good you were yesterday.

Israel's war with Hezbollah shows the Islamofascists can learn from the past. And I know of no indications that Russian advisers were involved in that.

[Cheburashka]

They know, They don't care! In fact they look forward to it!

I doubt that's true.
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To the true believers it is true.

It took only eight true believers to do 9/11. I'm counting the pilots and copilots, the others may have been true believers or not, if not they didn't know what was going to happen until too late.

To the true believers Mutually Assured Destruction means they win.

How many true believers are there in Iran, and who are they? Ah, that is the question, isn't it?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

To the true believers Mutually Assured Destruction means they win.

I respectfully disagree. The true believers might have the stones to fly planes into buildings, but lighting off a nuke is another matter, because lighting off a nuke guarantees a nuclear response---not in kind, but an all-out Holocaust-type nuclear response. There's just no "win" in it, even for the most deluded of thinkers. The one way for them to guarantee a non-Muslim future world is lighting off a nuke.

[Liberty Valance]

Good post.

[Cheburashka]

True believers believe that nuclear war will cleanse the earth of the infidel. The deaths of the faithful are merely the price to be paid to achieve Allah's will.

How many true believers in Iran are there? You only need a few at the top to crash Iran into the United States, as it were. Are there any such true believers in Iran, and do they hold the positions that would allow them to do that? As I said, that is the question.

I admit, the Iranians are a good number of years away from having MAD capabilities vis-a-vis the U.S., even after they get the bomb. But the ability to destroy Israel is far closer. And if you are a true believer, what will prevent you from believing that Allah will temporarily modify the laws of physics, so that the nukes Israel launches in retaliation will fall harmlessly to the ground? And if it doesn't work out that way, well, see paragraph one above.

Expecting a crazy person to act sanely is itself insane.

And don't think the average Abbas(Joe) walking the streets of Tehran will have any say in this. He's just a passenger.

[EternalVigilance]

The Iranian navy's new port facilities, after a clash with the USN: