Posted on 03/27/2007 12:49:52 PM PDT by SmithL
ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS, (AP) -- American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.
The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.
While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning.
"If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you better be careful about trying to intimidate others," said Capt. Bradley Johanson, commander of the Stennis.
"Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they have done," he added.
The exercises began four days after Iranian forces detained the 15 Britons for allegedly being in Iranian territorial waters near the northern end of the Gulf. U.S. and British officials insist the team was properly searching cargo vessels inside Iraqi waters.
F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft. A second task force with the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower also took part in the drills.
"These maneuvers demonstrate our flexibility and capability to respond to threats to maritime security," said Navy Lt. John Perkins, 32, of Louisville, Ky., as the Stennis cruised...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Don't you get it? Voting won't fix anything. It's all rigged. It's a chinese finger trap. The harder you pull the tighter it gets.
Imagine a 30,000 lb MOP-up operation.
The United States should bomb and destroy Iran's oil pipelines, for openers.
Yeah, I was there. Operation Earnest Will--reflagging foreign tankers and daring the Iranians to come out and play. We shot up some oil rigs with five inch 54's and we dropped a 500 lb bomb down the smoke of an Iranian frigate.
They didn't like it much.
What are the details of this photo?
and watch gas hit 6 bucks a gallon.
Yes. I know.
And the government blew up the WTC towers, in complicity with the Zionists. And wWe've never REALLY been to the moon. And there's a huge hole at the North Pole that leads down into the center of the Earth.
Sorry. No sale. I'm fresh out of foil.
Perhaps "yellow" grass...?
Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium volume pinglist.
It will as long as President Bush is in office.
Drive less.
Wrong. Iran does not own the "whole barrel".
You don't seem to realize that theres a single world market
for petroluem. A plane crash near Bushehr two years ago
sent oil prices up a couple of bucks on the day.
Far be it from me to rain on the chest thumping parade.
Bah, the navy is not toothless - our political leaders are. I suppose it translates to them same thing in Iranian eyes though.
If the Iranians know our politicians are too cowardly to strike, then why should they fear this navy?
"and watch gas hit 6 bucks a gallon."
Every American that has money to invest needs to have a little USO (oil trading vehicle) in their portfolio. Long term oil is going up regardless of the ME crises.
No reason for middle income Americans that have 401ks,IRAs, and portfolios not to be making money off oil instead of whining about what is inevitable.
The angle taken by the Left with regards to the Geneva Conventions will be that the US and Britain are no longer covered by the GC since we are "torturing" detainees and invaded a sovereign nation illegally.
Therefore the Left is going to spin it that these 15 sailors can be tortured/humiliated as Iran pleases.
Well it's either try to vote in conservatives, or take to the streets in civil war, ending with the hanging of all traitors. What do you choose?
"Well it's either try to vote in conservatives, or take to the streets in civil war, ending with the hanging of all traitors. What do you choose?"
hmm, both?
Somebody said something about blood and the tree of liberty, right? I hear there's already an Iraq/Afghan group of vets calling themselves The 300.
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