[Phsstpok]

From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...

We got into the power projection business under TR to deal with Barbary pirates. The tradition continues.

Plus, it provides some warm up for the navy for dealing with the Iranians in the gulf. Our tactics if we go after Iran over their nukes will be:

1. B2 and F117 (or are the F117s all retired?) strikes on key parts of the Iranian nuclear program along with Revolutionary Guard and Al Quds infrastructure
2. Anti runway cluster bombs taking out all of their air capability, including commercial
3. Sink every one of their boats in the gulf "with extreme prejudice"
4. Seal their ports
5. Destroy their gasoline refineries
6. Repeat as necessary
   

And then we sit in the gulf and wait.  If they try to attack with missiles we take out the entire area where they launch from with area denail weapons.  The main thing we have to fear is if they've managed to obtain a nuke, say a left over from the break up of the Sovient Union, and can place it as a mine someplace like the Straights of Hormuz, waiting for one of our carrier battle groups.

[mad_as_he$$]

Dude they only have one refinery.