Posted on 03/30/2007 6:06:52 PM PDT by Flavius
The soldiers who were there still talk about the September 7 firefight on the Iran-Iraq border in whispers. At Forward Operating Base Warhorse, the main U.S. military outpost in Iraq's eastern Diyala Province bordering Iran, U.S. troops recount events reluctantly, offering details only on condition that they remain nameless. Everyone seems to sense the possible consequences of revealing that a clash between U.S. and Iranian forces had turned deadly. And although the Pentagon has acknowledged that a firefight took place, it says it cannot say anything more. "For that level of detail, you're going to have to ask the [U.S.] military in Baghdad," says Army Lieut. Col. Mark Ballesteros. "We don't know anything about it."
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
"How will Russia and China respond to an embargo?"
Who cares? They certainly don't care about us. Make them understand that if they want Iranian oil, the mullahs have to straighten up.
"When you say "embargo", I'm not sure where that lies on the spectrum between boycott (choosing not to buy for oneself) and blockade (physically preventing anyone from transporting)."
Bahrain refines a lot of Iranian gas. They can turn off the spigot tomorrow, and they owe us anyway.
Same shameful orders "avoid a confrontation, avoid contact, They lost the allied Iraqi's that were with them..
The article says they are short handed...
Where are our Tanks and Bradlys?..Oh here in the US sitting because a bunch of Pretty Boy Light Fighter Generals would rather lose GIs lives than admit this is a War not a Stability and Support Operation (SAS).
W
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Bahrain refines a lot of Iranian gas. They can turn off the spigot tomorrow, and they owe us anyway."
Sounds good to me. It has to be a siginificant, sudden impact that can't be missed by the general population. How's yesterday at, say, noonish?
Since no noncombatants were involved, I hope we killed them by the bushel-basketful, and I hope they all went to Heaven.
Bingo. Just because no Americans were KIA or MIA does not make it successful. Iraqis are not well treated by the Iranians.
20 soldiers go out on patrol, 20 return. No matter whose patch they wear.

The chess club sent this over.
To; Brilliant
If memory serves, this incident has been written about previous to this story.
From the link, this portion rings the memory bell (as to being previously published, probably linked here to FR in some fashion);
"...U.S. troops fell further back into Iraqi territory, while four Iraqi army soldiers, one interpreter and one Iraqi border guard remained in the hands of the Iranians."
That being said, it having been previously written up, in no way certifies veracity.
What denydenydeny says [at post at #9 in this thread] looks wa-ay plausible, particularly in light of DAC22's "the Mullahs are baiting us for Military action. Their bet is that it will be limited in nature, and will rally the country.
.
Not only have they been openly baiting the U.S., Mahmoud actually thinks Iran will win a war against the U.S. He has publicly said as much.
It goes along with Osama's reasoning; if they strike at us, and we retaliate, then Islamics anywhere and everywhere will rise up and fight the 'great satan', thus doing "god" a favor...in their minds, anyway.
we need to declare war
start with declaring the first 50 miles of both Iranian and Syrian territory a free fire zone and put air over it.
I have been thinking about this a great deal. You are correct. A public pissing match will only strengthen the regime. However, a private pissing match would do the job. The West should start killing their people and breaking their stuff, but preserve deny-ability. Our public position should be to negotiate. Each day those sailors are held captive should cost the Iranians big time. They will get the message and they will score no propaganda points.
Too late and too long to recount here, but the signs are numerous. Military movements, B-1's back in theater, Russians leaving Iran, diplomats flying around to strange places, three carrier groups within combat distance....
An awful lot going on for it to be just an "exercise".
It's way past time. And I just have a hard time believing that Bush would put three carrier groups and two MEU's in the Gulf only to intimidate...and pull out with no stop to the nuke program.
I can think of numerous reasons to account for all of the signs in one way or another, but as I said previously, I hope I'm wrong.
Contrast this with the Brits....we had a running firefight and refused to be taken alive.
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