USS Pueblo
Axis of Evil grabbing ships, again?
Posted on 03/23/2007 12:51:40 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The most ominous detail about Iran's seizure of 15 British Royal Marines in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway on Friday morning is that the servicemen were reportedly taken into custody by the navy of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The IRGC is a powerful, separate branch of the Iranian armed forces. Soaked with nationalist ideology, it has grown into a state within a state in Iran, with its own naval, air and ground forces, parallel to official government institutions. The IRGC is directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the ultimate font of religious and political power in Iran.
The IRGC also has its own intelligence arm and commands irregular forces such as the basij — a voluntary paramilitary group affiliated with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — and the Quds force, which has been accused by the U.S. of supplying material to Iraqi insurgents bent on killing American soldiers.
The IRGC is also known for its clandestine activities including logistical support for militant organizations like Lebanon's Hizballah, which it helped to set up in the 1980s, and several Shi'a militia groups in Iraq. The IRGC's activities are often a thorn in the side of Iran's Foreign Ministry, which is forced to repair the ruptures in Tehran's diplomatic relations with countries the Guard has inflamed with its self-directed adventures. Nevertheless, it has been one of Iran's main instrument in projecting power and influence over the last few decades.
Because the IRGC's actions are always interwoven with the religious-nationalist ideology of Iran's hardliners, extricating the British may be complicated.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
It's worth remembering that Iran has spoofed GPS signals to cause 4 U.S. UAV's to crash in Iran, as well as that a U.S. naval patrol and now 2 different UK naval patrols have strayed into Iranian waters.
Thus, Iran has repeatedly demonstrated that they can skew our GPS air & naval units...and they have done so in order to show that *we* are infringing on their sovereignty by crossing into their waters.
USS Pueblo
Axis of Evil grabbing ships, again?
I guess it time to bring Ted Koppel out of mothballs and back on Nightline for Day 2 of the British Hostage Crisis.
Like we did with the Chinese when they forced down one of our reconnaissance planes?
That's probably whats gonna happen. War is sometimes necessary, but Iran has been really pushing it.
I was referring to a large strike on them.
I guess that's Farsi for "Sturmabteilung"
They're Brits, we're Americans ... maybe they should have picked US soldiers because this is not going to stop us if we grab him.
I'm sure there's a lot of phone calling going on right now.
The Mullahs know that the BBC and other Eurotrash Leftist media will spin this in their favor.
If these guys were boarding ships to look for contraband, what kind of navy backup did they have?
This looks pretty curious to me. where was the HMS Cornwall and what class ship is it? If they were in a small boat able to transit the marshes of the waterway, then they should have been armed and able to fend off an Iranian force.
Lots of questions.
I have obtained an actual transcript of Nutjob and the Revolutionary Guards in a recent planning session:
Otter: Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
Flounder: May I have ten thousand marbles, please?
That made me think about that James Bond movie where the megalomaniac media baron was making tomorrows news by using a GPS unit to change positions of a British warship near China to start a conflict just for news and headlines.
Nowadays I wonder how far from true it really is.
Time does their best to puff up the Iranians.
Too bad they can't do the same for the American Navy.
Yes, indeed.
The question has to be asked... what was the Captain of Cornwall doing to properly protect his own people??
How were Iranian vessels allowed to converge on and surround the British boats?
Was the Captain told not to provoke any Iranian reaction? How were his hands tied by the politicos?
Pity the Iranians are not working to the same play book.
A robust response, or at least some attempt to protect themselves might have been more in order.
Why are we allowing these mothers to rub our noses in the dirt?
If he doesn't, hopefully Her Majesty does!
1. Viciousness.
2. Stupidity.
We have to back our British cousins on this one. They have been faithful to us. Now we must do the same by them.
Iran needs a lesson that even a goldfish could remember for a century or two.
Funny thing here with your analogy, which is apt by the way:
Iran isn't China by a long shot. China's a much bigger, different can of problems than Iran is.
If the UK said they wanted to throw down with Iran, many would line up to help, I would think.
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