Unless you've been living under a rock, you know about this:
Ten U.S. sailors and two U.S. riverine command boats – small shallow-water patrol craft with minimal technology or defenses – were detained Tuesday [January 12, 2016] after a mechanical failure caused the boats to drift into Iran’s territorial waters near Farsi Island, U.S. defense officials said. There were nine male sailors and one female sailor on board.The US Navy personnel have been released.
After Iran impounded their vessels, the video shows the crews being taken to what looks to be a closed-off room with white walls and rugs. The crew removed their shirts and shoes; it was not clear if the Iranians required them to do so. The male sailors are wearing olive T-shirts, and the female sailor is wearing a long-sleeve shirt and a head covering.
The images and the video broadcast on Iranian television:
Before the above images and video were released, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thanked Iran for releasing the sailors. He also announced that, as early as Friday, January 15, 2016, Iran may be satisfying the nuke deal and on its way to recovering $100 billion of assets frozen in overseas banks.
Your thoughts on these events of the past few days?
Do you see the fishing boat in the top picture that captured our war machines?
ReplyDeleteSomeday someone will talk.
There was no reason for small ships transiting that much ocean unless taking McArthur to Australia.
I am not smart enough to be able to translate your statement, Ed. Would please you be kind enough to decode it for me? I'm sure there are others equally not "in the know" who'd appreciate a greater clarification too.
DeleteThanks.
Is that an old Boston Whaler? Looks it.
DeleteThe better question is why in hell is a US naval vessel apparently unarmed?
Those are the Iranian Guard boats that "captured" our War Machines.
DeleteTwo of our boats simultaneously break down? Sounds legit. I hope our warmongers were sufficiently humiliated on Farsi Island while obama's SOTU took the rest of us to Farce-y land.
ReplyDeleteIt has been reported that Kerry asked Iran to pick up the sailors, thus causing this kerfuffle. If true, the whole,thing was a set up for what purpose we may never know.
ReplyDeleteEpic Brechtian theatre.
ReplyDeleteThough I greatly appreciate the talent of his sometime-collaborator, composer Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, himself, was a SCHEISSKOPF of EPIC proportions.
DeleteMost –– hough by no means all –– manifestations of twentieth century "modernism" should have been shredded and placed "dans la poubelle," as the French would say.
In short: UGH!
...but, but, but... just think of all the culture we would have missed out on! ;)
DeleteWith all due respect to the late Mr Bowie.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQJFWhn1R_w
Why isn't anyone saying anything about the Mexican Kidnappings, Torture and Beheadings from that fearsome Los Zetas, who just last month beheaded and dumped the remains of four victims in the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras, to the Mexican city of Matamoros, where the Gulf Cartel continues to bring terror to average citizens through kidnappings, extortion and murder, cartels continue to make money on the blood of the innocent.
ReplyDeleteDismal loser Jimmy Carter all over again.
ReplyDeleteFor us, this is simply humiliating, but this event, complete with surrendering US military personnel is Oscar Award propaganda in the Middle East.
The infotainment media has helped out Obama by playing this down as much as possible.
Meanwhile, Iran still has their nuke program, and they just test launched a long-range missile from their Barack Obama Missile Facility, and Obama is handing them $100 billion to fund the Hezbos and other Islamic terror projects around the globe. An enemy plant in the White House couldn't do more damage...
QUESTION: If this –– I suspect staged –– incident has genuine propaganda value for our enemies, why would any of us want to criticize the enemedia for doing it's best to obscure it –– even if it goes give a temporary boost to President BUSSEINO?
DeleteBy the way I wish you'd refer to our least-illustrious ex-pesident by his proper name:
DeleteDHIMMI CARTER
};-)>
The propaganda is for ME consumption, not here.
DeleteIran is the big player now, capturing two Navy boats and frog marching US soldiers (I know, they are sailors, but to the ME, those are US soldiers being humiliated by the "strong horse" Iranians)
This is bad. Very, very bad.
SF,
DeleteYour comment @ 1:17 PM EDT is spot on!
The message to the Middle East is loud and clear: Iran is a stronger horse than the United States.
Dated Wednesday, January 13, 2016...
ReplyDeleteIRGC Navy Commander: Iranian Missiles Locked on US Aircraft Carrier
When Rachael Maddow calls BS on a story that embarrasses this Administration, you know something is fishy.
ReplyDeleteCI,
DeleteWhat did she say? Link?
Here.
DeleteRachel Maddow just earned some respect from me. That is smart journalism.
Delete"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." A. Lincoln
DeleteWhen even Rachael Maddog isn't buying it, you're not fooling anyone.
Maddow is a smart woman, she's just way off the scale too far left for me, but that is what journalism should be all about.
DeleteIf this sort of thing is the beginning of a TREND. I think it's a grave danger against which we ought to devise a powerful, efficient strategy to make sure it never happens again.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, IF, as I suspect, it was just an isolated incident –– a rather weak example of mere saber rattling on the part of our enemies –– I think we should be very grateful our men were released unharmed within 24 hours, and not try to make too much of it.
I for one am MUCH more concerned about who the next occupant of the White House might be, and FAR more concerned beyond that about the ultimate fate of the Dow-Jones Industrial Average and all that implies.
If you think things are bad NOW, just wait till the stock market suffers a crash greater than that which precipitated the Great Depression of 1929, or the disastrous plunge of 2008 precipitated by Dodd-Frank in conjunction with Fannie and Freddie.
Few, who are not members of the so-called Investor Class, seem to realize that when the security of the modestly rich middle-to-upper-middle class is threatened, most COMMERCE slows down to the extent where discretionary spending all-but ceases, production diminishes alarmingly, employment may be cut to the bone, paint starts to peel off houses, roof leaks cease to be patched, virtually NO home improvement takes place, no new clothes are bought, eating in restaurants diminishes to such an extent that more than half may be forced out of business, etc. All this fosters a "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" mentality that takes an ever diminishing supply of cash out of the economy.
We've been living on FIAT money issued by the Fed for a very long time. Our recent prosperity has been illusory. FIAT money is a euphemism for COUNTERFEIT money. The only difference between the two is that the issuance of FIAT money is sanctioned by the government.
Haven't you noticed YET that our currency diminishes in purchasing power virtually with the the dawn of every new day?
Instead of playing Whack-a-Mole with each of the myriad undesirable incidents and episodes that pop up on a daily basis, we MUST deal with the VIOLATION and DENIAL of BEDROCK PRINCIPLES –– get to the ROOT of what is wrong, and change our course before we go over over the metaphorical falls and get dashed to pieces on the metaphorical rocks below.
TWO PEARLS of WISDOM WORTHY of YOUR CONSIDERATION:
1. "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
2. "Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up."
~ Thoreau (1817-1862)
I personally believe that this was a staged event for strict PR exploitation by both sides.
ReplyDeleteWhat would Obama get out of this?
DeleteIn the Obama Admins's twisted vision, does this look like diplomacy that makes Obama look good?
Kerry got a lot of mileage out of the "efficacies" of "diplomacy," implying that they'd be locked up today were it not for his and Obama's "prescient" policies.
DeleteKerry had been a "riverine" sailor as well (it was probably his own scenario that got acted out in the gulf).
Delete@sf,
DeleteDid you see the Tom Hank's movie, Bridge of Spies? The "theme" of the movie was one of maintaining the most possible options going forward (the very definition of "intelligence"). And it would appear that this "incident" was intended to validate that premise.
The real question that remains to be seen is, is there any value at all in negotiating with the Iranians. There had been some in negotiating with the Cold War era Soviets.
DeleteSome of us perceive that in emphasizing "diplomacy", we remove other options from the table that might "facilitate" diplomatic negotiations.
DeleteI have not see Bridge of Spies.
DeleteThere could be value in negotiating with the turds in turbans, but first the US needs real hard-nosed negotiators and a position.
The only purpose of the Heinz-Kerry farce seemed to be complete US capitulation and handing the Iranians hundreds of billions.
Concur. Right down to the use of riverine boats which, as Ed points out above, have no business crossing that much open water. It's a put up job for sure.
DeleteDiplomatic "Happy Talk"
DeleteSpeedy,
DeleteSpin!
A new angle...
DeleteI have one burning question:
ReplyDeleteWhy did the female sailor take on what is a sign of gender subjugation for many women in the world? She looks absolutely homeless in the image where she has a brown cloth over her head. So much for pride in wearing the uniform. It is not like they had been held in captivity for months.
That's chump change compared to the apology.
DeleteLets not be too hard on her. There were probably people holding AK's insisting she cover her head.
DeleteIf you're ordered not to fight back, as it seems obvious they were, it's not an issue to die for. When in Rome...
the news this morning said she was forced to wear a hijab...what cracks me up is how the news people are succumbing to the islamist way of saying it "she was made to wear hijab"..not "a hijab".
DeleteAOW...I'm blogging this tomorrow with, I hope, an interesting question ...
Z,
DeleteI'll plan to stop by.
actually, I decided to ask about the debate, since it's so much more lively than usual.
DeleteI'll publish the sailor situation Saturday! Thanks, AOW
Two riverine boats disabled implies the simultaneous failure of four 440 hp motors. I find that as difficult to believe as the possibility that any naval vessel carries nothing to use as a tow line, or that sailors don't know how to tie knots. Any craft capable of 40 knot speed could certainly tow another out of mischief at 5. A "stunt" for sure.
ReplyDeleteFor consideration (Please read carefully):
ReplyDeleteI rarely pull out my dusty old trident, but in this case, here goes. I was a Navy SEAL officer in the 1980s, and this kind of operation (transiting small boats in foreign waters) was our bread and butter. Today, these boats both not only had radar, but multiple GPS devices, including chart plotters that place your boat’s icon right on the chart. The claim by Iran that the USN boats “strayed into Iranian waters” is complete [bovine effluvia].
For an open-water transit between nations, the course is studied and planned in advance by the leaders of the Riverine Squadron, with specific attention given to staying wide and clear of any hostile nation’s claimed territorial waters. The boats are given a complete mechanical check before departure, and they have sufficient fuel to accomplish their mission plus extra. If, for some unexplainable and rare circumstance one boat broke down, the other would tow it, that’s why two boats go on these trips and not one! It’s called “self-rescue” and it’s SOP.
This entire situation is in my area of expertise. I can state with complete confidence that both Iran and our own State Department are lying. The boats did not enter Iranian waters. They were overtaken in international waters by Iranian patrol boats that were so superior in both speed and firepower that it became a “hands up!” situation, with automatic cannons in the 40mm to 76mm range pointed at them point-blank. Surrender, hands up, or be blown out of the water. I assume that the Iranians had an English speaker on a loudspeaker to make the demand. This takedown was no accident or coincidence, it was a planned slap across America’s face.
No doubt the hero of the libtards will fly over with several hundred friends, apologize, spend massive amounts of money on vacationary items then come back and blame it on Bush.
ReplyDeleteDo I have the sequence of events correct?
ReplyDelete1. Iran nabs the sailors.
2. The sailors are released.
3. Kerry apologizes to Iran.
4. Iran releases the photos and the video.
5. The Obama administration and the mainstream media trumpet the release of the sailors as testimony to the genius of the Obama administration's having an understanding with Iran because of the nuke deal.
Yes. And next Kerry sends James Taylor.
DeleteOr Yusuf / Cat Stevens.
Good one!
ReplyDeleteOrdinarily, this would merit a court-martial for the skippers of those boats, but it's Obama's government now, so they could all be decorated for their misadventure.