Iran Threatens To Shut Straits of Hormuz

nysun.com ^ | August 4, 2008 | Eli Lake

[Free ThinkerNY]

WASHINGTON—Two days after a diplomatic deadline has passed for Iran to enter negotiations with the world's great powers and end the reprocessing and enrichment of uranium, the chief of the country's Revolutionary Guard Corps is threatening to close down one of the world's most critical oil chokepoints, the Straits of Hormuz.

Speaking to Iranian reporters after testing a new anti-ship missile, Mohammad Ali Jafari said it could sink "enemy ships" at a range of more than 200 miles, and that shutting down the Straits of Hormuz would be easy.

"Enemies know that we are easily able to block the Straits of Hormuz for unlimited period," Iran's official news service quoted Mr. Jafari as saying.

[Stayfree]

Reminds me of the mouse continuing his effort to get the last bit of peanut butter from the mouse trap...until SNAP...game over, you lose!

[rmlew]

There is a pipline. But pipelines are notoriously easy to bomb as they are long and difficult to protect.

[epow]

Everyone assumes we will voluntarily neuter ourselves. One of these days the world's idiots are going to push just a little too far just one time too many, and wake up in hellfire.

Not if we foolishly elect Obama, at least not if the nation of idiots is Islamic. But if it turned out to be Israel then all bets are off. You can't expect anything else from a man whose spiritual advisor and confidant for 20+ years is a devoted admirer and disciple of The Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan.

[Chode]

[tomkat]

Izzy, you wrote my post !

Saw map, hadn't read Red's comment, thought 'canal'.

What a total pussy that lunatic Carter was/is/will always be...

[stevie_d_64]

They tried it in the 80’s...Didn’t work real well...

Loved sending a couple of their top shelf Frigates to the bottom back then...

They blow up real good...And we didn’t have 25% of the force we have in their now...

Geesh I miss the good ole days...

[Daffynition]

"...after testing a new anti-ship missile..."

Have we seen the photoshop of this "test" yet?

[JasonC]

One of these days, Americans are going to wake up and stop asking permission from notorious traitors to defend themselves. The left trumpets as loudly as possible their personal unwillingness to fight for anything. We'll call them on it, and the next we will be free and they will not.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

This may very well be the trigger that causes the US and Israel to attack Iran.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I was thinking the same thing... but, I doubt Dubai would give up land for a canal.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

The Libs know exactly what they are doing, they want to hamstring or hamper our military capability anyway they can... it does not take to much to think that they are working and helping our enemies around the world.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I was watching ( I think a Navy commercial ) a commercial today for the Navy, and I saw them using and launching something that looks like a model airplane and miniature torpedoes.
I do remember reading a article a few years ago that the Marines use planes that look like model airplanes for recon purposes.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

How about a EMP attack on Iran before they even know what hit them ?

[Prophet in the wilderness]

"They don’t have the military capability to shut down the strait for any significant amount of time."

" That's what I thought until I was recently told on another thread that the Iranians could block the navigable channels through the Hormuz straits just by sinking a few tankers with their conventional warhead missiles, and it would take a year of more to clear the blockage. I know practically nothing about that area, but apparently those shipping channels through the Hormuz Straits are very narrow and easy to close off. "


Remember right after the Gulf War I and the MSM was all doom and gloom that the Kuwait oil well fires would take years to put out ?

But, in reality, it only took 8 months of hard work to put all the oil well fires.
We don't really know how long it would take the US Navy to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but, I am sure it will be faster than what the MSM is predicting.

[mpackard]

Ha, dont worry about the carpal tunnel syndrom, that can be healed? She steers the boat, they dont let her launch cause, well, she’s a little moody : )

[AmericaUnited]

Too bad... I’d send her a package of whatever makes her extra cranky.. :)

[mpackard]

(you cant package it : ))

[Tommyjo]

It doesn’t quite work like that. Only if nuclear weapons or other WMD are used against U.S. forces would a similar retaliation take place. Hanoi could have been taken out with a nuke - Vietnam war over! If it came to a conventional conflict in the Persian Gulf the U.S. isn’t going to drop a nuclear weapon on Iran.

[Tommyjo]

Never underestimate your enemy. If it develops into a conventional conflict anything can take place in the heat of battle. The Iranians have enough anti-ship cruise missiles in that region to do serious damage. Coalition forces in the region take the threat very seriously indeed. In such a conflict the enemy can have their successes too.

[Cheesehead In Dubai]

In addition to a rather large mountain range, the commercial shipping already uses the UAE/Oman side of the Straits. It should be pointed out that any missiles that are able to reach shipping in the straits can also reach shipping in a canal.

Oil and refined products are already shipped from the UAE port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. Pipelines going from Abu Dhabi and Dubai also have to cross this rather large mountain range.

I went to Khasab on the Straits of Hormuz yesterday to have a look. I sat on a beach, eating a sandwich, watching a string of oil tankers hugging the Oman coast heading for the Gulf of Oman.