Posted on 03/17/2012 7:29:32 AM PDT by Strategy
The global signs of a coming military conflict with Iran continue to build, and today the U.S. Navy made clear its intentions by announcing it's sending four additional mine countermeasure ships to the Strait of Hormuz.
Stars and Stripes reports the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he's sending the mine ships in addition to four airborne mine countermeasure helicopters.
Iran has already warned that one of its first steps in closing the Strait of Hormuz, and choking off 40 percent of the world's oil supply, will be to mine the strait and deploy its fleet of small electronic submarines.
Greenert was recently aboard the USS John C. Stennis when it was tailed through the strait by the Iranians and came away from that ride thinking "[W]e could do better setting the theater. I wanted to be sure ... that we are ready..."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“Im glad we only get a small portion of our oil from the middle east.”
That won’t help much- the countries that do buy ME oil will be competing with us for our supply if Hormuz gets closed. Prices will soar.
” Is mining something that can be easily and quickly performed without detection?”
Absolutely. And as effective as it’s low tech. It just requires a fleet of small, cheap boats with a lot of inexpensive mines. Iran has them. This is a much more serious threat than the nuclear one that people are focused on. No matter how many of them you sweep you can’t be sure that you have them all. That will put a serious kink in sending billion dollar supertankers into the gulf like we do today.
You're right - that's how it'll work.
Every Left Wing Radical wants in his heart of hearts to be a "Wartime President," just like the adored FDR. October Surprise time, Baby.
The Iranians are playing The Jerk like a violin.
The communist dictator of Venezuela, from which we do receive significant amounts of refined and unrefined oil, has declared that he would cut shipments to the US if we attack Iran.
10 years ago I would have belived you, but, not today.if obama orders the commanders to order their pilots to fire on israeli airplanes they will. If the pilots re ordered to fire on Israeli airplanes they will.
To build specialized refineries for it, or to re-tool an existing refinery to handle it is no small matter. Without St. Croix and Trinidad, Chavez oil is not really all that a red hot commodity. The CHICOM may build Chavez a refinery or two, but until that happens, the fat dog can howl all he wants... or all his oncologist lets him.
Bin Laden wanted to be the Protector of the Shrines and displace the Saudis. The U.S. and the Soviets were just chesspieces on his board, the object of which was Mecca.
Having defeated both the USSR and the US in combat in Afghanistan, he would then descend from the mountains (in theory) as the New Saladin, the champion of Islam, to take over the Arabian peninsula and reestablish the Rightly-Guided Caliphate with him as khalifa and founder of a new dynasty.
Then we found him and killed him.
The problem with his plan, or with any Pan-Arabist's plan to reestablish the Caliphate is that, even with all that oil and territory, it would still have an Achilles heel, a fatal weakness. It'd be full of Arabs.
Sounds like a good application for "The Holy Hand Grenade".
I am sorry to write this...but just simply drop a nuke or two over their command cities and be done with it!
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