Lot’s of geo-political news activity this evening.
From the Associated Press @ 1:36 AM CST
Iran’s state television says the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard has started large-scale war games in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The Thursday report says naval, air and ground units from the Guard will participate in the three-day games codenamed “The Great Prophet.”
Iran annually holds military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which some 40 percent of the world’s oil and energy supplies pass through, to show off its military capabilities.
This year’s war games, however, could heighten tension at a time when the West is at a deepening standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. The West suspects the program conceals a nuclear arm production drive, a charge that Iran denies.
Iran holds war games each year, so this may be yet another exercise. Iranian television is describing these as large-scale, and they happen to coincide with breaking reports out of South Korea that a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the sinking of a patrol ship in March.
Great! This will give our Navy a chance to evaluate the best way to neutralize Iran once the shooting starts.Â
zukadu , the problem with any evaluation will be the navy,s bias toward any other naval fleet but its own ! A couple of years ago the US Navy held a fleet exercise to evaluate its war making capability’s against the Iranian navy . the Navy brought back in a retired Admiral who ran the enemy fleet . he showed the Navy where they had weaknesses in dealing with small attack craft that could in a confrontation sink every type of vessel the navy had even the aircraft carriers ! The navy in response during the second week of the two week exercise was to limit the enemy admiral to a tight set of rules that the enemy would never use . and so the retired admiral quit in disgust . Until the Navy can give its self an honest evaluation its not going to win with out loosing a lot of people and ships . The US Navy needs a vessel that can take on the small Iranian attack craft , something along the lines of the WW ll PT boat ! with upgraded weapons engines and hulls .
We must be very careful here. Remember “it†always starts with a Naval incident, e.g., Gulf of Tonkin, the sinking of the Lusitania, the sinking of the Maine, Peral Harbor, etc.
“War games that coincide with a breaking report”? Are you serious?? That’s like trying to draw a connection between a graph of the shuttle landing against a graph of the Dow’s 2008 crash and implying that NASA engineered the economic crash. Lets try to keep some sort of sanity here – after all, nobody wants to draw a connection between this website and, say, Alex Jones.
Armageddon will be here soon enough. Iran is preparing for the return of the Mahdi, their Islamic savior per say. They believe that he will only be ushered in through war and mass destruction! This is REAL. This is what they really believe! It should be taken Serious. When their president says hes going to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. He means it. Latest CIA intelligence links their nuclear program to this Mahdi prophet.
It seems like the primary reason for these “military exercises” is just to tweak the noses of the U.S. and its allies (whoever they may be) in the area. They are getting increasingly paranoid about an attack from the West. They want to show that they have the ability to respond. This really doesn’t mean much right now but in the long run, this won’t end well.
Iran could totally destory the USA and never even fire a shot. They have sovergn rights over a shipping stright. Massive oil tankers pass through daily. They will shut down the oil shipping. That will throw the USA in economic collapse. We attack them, we pay 200Â dollar for a gallon of gas.Â
All shutting down the straight would do is result in Iran’s destruction. It is a vital pathway for world oil. Shut it down and you aren’t pissing off just the US (which could militarily flatten you by itself anyways) but the entire world.
I KNOW!>!>!>>!>!>! Â lets adopt a new, really well thought out energy policy, like, oh, um, DRILL BABY DRILL. Â Then, we can overlook the fact that in US waters, oil companies ARE NOT REQUIRED to have safety shut-off valves on their under water well heads, like they have to in the rest of the world. Â Nothing can go wrong, right? Â Gas will be back to a buck a gallon in no time, just as soon as those companies get tired of raking in their record profits. Â They’ll get tired real soon, just keep watching……….