Posted on 07/19/2019 1:05:57 PM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
A British-flagged oil tanker was seized by Iran on Friday night and was heading towards a Revolutionary Guard base, in a major escalation of tensions along one of the world's most vital oil shipping routes.
The Stena Impero had been en route to Saudi Arabia but made an abrupt change of course and began moving towards the Iranian island of Qeshm, according to data relayed by maritime tracking services.
The ship “went dark”, meaning its identification system was turned off, at 16:29 UK time and nothing has been heard from her or her 23 crew since.
Northern Marine, a Clyde-based subsidiary of the ship's Swedish owner Stena AB, confirmed that a “hostile action” had preceded the vessel's change of course on Friday afternoon.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Not going to happen. This is hardly the first time a NATO member has had its assets attacked, hell, in 1982 the Argentinians invaded the Falklands and the response from one fellow NATO nation (Belgium) was to stop sales of 7.62 ammunition for our standard issue SLR combat rifles.
That mutual aid defence cause has only ever been invoked once, after 9-11 by the United States, but that was after thousands of US citizens had been murdered by Afghan-based terrorists on US soil. Britain isn’t going to invoke this clause for the sake of a few tankers being seized.
Sounds sporting.
I am already hearing the same old argument that if Trump goes to war it is all about oil.
WRONG!
Reality is, if Iran is successful in shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, America gets richer, because everyone will be forced to buy our oil. So using that tired old argument is dead. If we do nothing we get richer, because the world would have to come to us.
Especially since one of the largest producers of oil is Venezuela, and their Socialist government has collapsed and cannot get their own oil out of the ground. As usual Socialism breeds poverty and destruction.
So If Trump does nothing, we get richer. Sorry Charlie, but that old argument is baseless.
Time for the leftists to get educated.
It is not about their oil.
Still winning, and not tired of it.
>>British Navy is on the Way ...<<
Is it?
SAS and SEALS together again.
SAS and SEALS, low profile boarding. Kill all non- crewmen. Fire up the ship and just steam away and have the RN and US Navy standing by.
Not “all out war.”
> Britain isn’t going to invoke this clause for the sake of a few tankers being seized. <
Oh, I agree with you. My post #59 was just a hypothetical. And if Britain did consider invoking the clause, I’m sure the rest of NATO would firmly talk them out of it.
Let Britain deal with their own problems.
Not fair by any measure.
Seized Iranian tanker was breaking sanctions and subject to action.
Brit ship was engaged in legitimate business
Precisely. The UK should be in America’s bad books.
Fire up Operation Earnest Will. US escorted tankers.
Small units (SAS AND SEALS) do the work.
And we have a target list pre-planned for tomahawk strikes.
“....Have they ruled out Somali Pirates?....”
Yeah. Couldn’t be them....they all moved to Minnesota. One em got elected and is now a full blown rootin, tootin, RAT CongressCritter doing what RATs do best.
Need to re-flag tankers as UU tanker. Just like we did during Kuwaiti tanker escort. (Operation Earnest Will).
Oil prices are not changing, because we are self sufficient in oil for the first time in years.
Jefferson was tired of the piracy in the Middle East from the Barbary Coast pirates. He moved by removing the problem. For 200 years they were silent.
It wasn’t until the West became weak that the problem began again in the Middle East. Mainly because the left hurt our ability to be self sufficient in oil.
Its is time to do the same thing by putting the fear of God in them.
We are self sufficient in oil for the first time in years, so we do not need to keep making them rich. Time to make a statement like Jefferson did.
I guarantee you they will back off, because the only thing they fear is strength.
Yeah that doesn’t fly anymore.
I said that for months now and even denied that it was Iran doing some of the things everyone was saying they did.
Kind of like a Germany pre WWII thingy going on again.
Except the enemy doesn’t have the vaunted military Germany had.
Nit it in the bud.
Go Gotti on them with air and sea power.
You forgot that the Brit’s seized an Iranian tanker at Gibraltar strait a week ago for sanction violations. This is the payback.
Maggie Thatcher would kick their asses like
Falklands.
Now, with so many muzzies, effective action
is unlikely.
Let them handle it first rather than use it as an excuse to go to War with Iran and kill many innocents.
I do a lot of work with Veterans and let me tell you they are not itching to go into Iran over this
Liberian flagged tanker Medsar is underway moving away from Iran.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.