President Donald Trump this morning revealed that he has ordered the Navy to shoot and destroy any Iranian gunboats that are found to be harassing U.S. warships.
The forceful response comes as reports last week indicate 11 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard vessels repeatedly harassed six U.S. Navy warships that were conducting drills in international waters.
“I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” the President warned on social media.
Video of #IRGCN vessels conducting dangerous & harassing approaches on U.S. naval vessels in the international waters of the North Arabian Gulf. pic.twitter.com/zL9VKQ0eiQ
— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) April 15, 2020
Not Playing Games
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet reported last week, according to Fox News, that:
Iranian ships repeatedly crossed in front and behind the U.S. vessels at extremely close range and high speeds, including multiple crossings of one ship, the Puller, with a 50-yard closest point of approach and within 10 yards of another ship, the Maui’s, bow, a 5th Fleet statement said.
They did this despite multiple warnings via radio, along with horn blasts and long-range acoustic noise maker devices.
The Iranian vessels finally moved away after roughly one hour.
I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020
Iran Better Back Down
Iran might want to think twice about playing these games again after Trump’s order. His threats are not hollow, and there is no doubt he has no intention of placating Iran as his predecessor had.
In January of 2016, Iran detained 10 American sailors after they navigated inside Iranian territorial waters.
In response, former President Barack Obama had his Secretary of State John Kerry thank the regime despite video showing sailors crying and apologizing, and despite images that also showed them being mocked.
By contrast, President Trump announced in a statement in 2019 that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been designated a terrorist organization.
It marked the first time the United States had designated an entity within a foreign government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
This new directive from the President comes several months after hostilities between the U.S. and Iran which included an attack at the U.S. Embassy compound in Iraq.
I’m sure that’s the last we’ll see of the Sea Ray Navy. They don’t want to find out just HOW MUCH Obama is no longer President.
Later the Iranis were training by poking a beehive with a stick.
Practice drills of them running with scissors have also been seen by drones.
Hopefully our ship commanders understand that it would be abysmally stupid to blow an Iranian speedboat out of international waters for nothing more than constituting a deliberate annoyance. Deliberate annoyance is not an act of war. In this case it’s a good way to get yourself run over, which would cost Iran a boat, possibly Iranian lives, and official embarrassment.
You shoot you’re seriously threatened. If you suspect you’re seeing a torpedo run or a course suggesting a suicide attack, then you shoot, and you get it all on video to demonstrate why you did. Otherwise you avoid all invitations to engage in unwanted escalation.
We’ve got nothing we need to prove to anybody. Except for the guy in the social media spotlight, of course. Therein lies a danger.
@Greg: You shoot if they pose a threat to the vessel or safety of the crew. Cutting in front of the vessel, pointing their guns at the crew and trying to deny the Navy their free right to travel in international waters is provocation enough. They have now been warned; what happens is the Ayatollah’s responsibility.
If they are expecting pallets of cash to stop harassing our Navy and an apology for being in international waters, that ship, as they say, has sailed.
They aren’t denying any U.S. vessel the right to travel if we brake for nobody. That should be made clear.
A distinction exists between threats and harassment. We should respond with deadly force only to the former. In that case it is acceptable to err on the side of caution. It’s best then to have evidence clearly establishing why belief that a real threat existed was entirely reasonable.
@Greg: Overrunning one of those boats could cause damage to the US vessel, causing it to have to return to a base. Evasive action endangers lives. Their purpose is to do it and get away with it. It won’t stop until they don’t get away with it. And, if we did blow one of their armed ski-boats out of the water… what? They won’t like us? They’ll support terrorism? They’ll work on nuclear weapons? What are they going to do? They’ve played all their cards.
This is just one more mess the cowardly idiot Obama left behind. Sadly, there is but one way to resolve it.
@Greg:
Little pieces are less damaging to our bigger more expensive boats to run over.
@Greg: If you were a veteran, you’d understand.
This is good order, and it’s about time.
There’s a lot of dead American soldiers and dead Cops who would disagree with your blatant cowardice.
@Greg:
Who the f*ck is paying you to write this garbage? I really want to know.
Is it the RNC? You’re helping their cause.
@Nathan Blue: Its been a standing order, Trump just let the Irani ski show know they have nothing on Tommy Bartlet . No wake antics.
@Nathan Blue, #8:
Distinguishing between a serious threat and provocation isn’t a matter of courage or cowardice. It’s a matter of discernment and sound judgement.
We should be assured enough of our own power not to need to “shoot down” annoying little Iranian speed boats. If a serious threat to one of our vessels or its personnel appears, I assume most U.S. Navy commanders would do so without hesitation. The Twitter post is just presidential posturing.
No one needs to pay me to post my opinion. I’ll likely cease doing so entirely once we again have an adult in the Oval Office.
@Greg: I’m certain the commanders can determine what constitutes a threat. Trump merely gave them the freedom of action. Unless you think the commanders are too stupid to make wise choices?
Interfering with the path of a vessel practicing landing helicopters on its helipad can be pretty damned dangerous. I don’t care to wait until we lose an aircrew to demonstrate we will defend ourselves.
@Deplorable Me, #12:
That is not the meaning of the statement that he made:
One would hope the the actual order the Commander in Chief gave was very different—assuming any order relating to the matter was actually given at all.
@Greg: One of the ships was practicing landing a Blackhawk on the helipad when the Iranian boat was cutting across its path. That puts the aircrew and recovery crew in danger. However, I will hazard a guess that Trump’s go-ahead will put an end to their antics.
May 7, 2020 – Senate fails to override Trump veto on Iran war powers
@Greg:
You said:
PROVE IT.
Provide a link for the transcript of the call between Flynn and Kislyak.
@Greg: If Democrats believed in this, they should have invoked it when Obama and Hillary were destabilizing Libya so Hillary and the Podesta’s could reap a business windfall.
@retire05, #16:
Read the STATEMENT OF THE OFFENSE for yourself. Michael Flynn, in the presence of his attorney and under under penalty of perjury, swore under oath that everything therein was correct and accurate.
Did he have his fingers crossed? On which occasion was he being truthful, and on which occasion was he lying?
Contrary to the “logic” of Donald John Trump—which his followers routinely and repeatedly swallow hook line and sinker—two statements that directly contradict one another cannot both be true. In this particular case, one or the other was a matter of perjury, and the lie concerns an act at the heart of the matter that was itself unlawful. Nor is that the only crime that was acknowledged; it’s just the one Flynn was charged with, in return for cooperation that ceased at the prospect of a better offer.
This is a variation on the same damn thing Barr did when he inexplicably let Roger Stone off the hook. In that instance, four DoJ prosecutors resigned from the case in protest. But hey, who the hell cares? Trump’s boy Barr again delivered the goods.
The DoJ has been corrupted from the top, just like everything Trump gets his hands on becomes corrupted. The one rotten apple that nobody has been able to deal with is rotting the entire barrel. The swamp isn’t being drained. That was never the intention. Instead, the integrity of core institutions is being methodically destroyed.
You want to see the transcript? Fine. While we’re at it, let’s see all of the rest of the material that the Trump administration itself has been keeping locked down. Let’s see everything that they’re lying about.
May 7, 2020 – Trump administration asks Supreme Court to shield secret Mueller grand jury materials
By the way, quit changing the subject. This thread is about Iran.
@Greg: Of all the members of Barrys IC that lied to congress how many were prosecuted?
How many in the FBI that lied to the FISA court how many were prosecuted?
It was Barrys admin that was the most criminal and scandal ridden in history.
More documents were delivered to the DOJ today all that evidence that Adam Schiff was yammering about. You dont know much about the cases cause Wretched Madcow and her crew keep you ignorant.
Flynns first legal team was working with the prosecution not for his defense. Thats a lawsuit I would like to see, I say he was damaged by them in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
but this is the wrong thread isnt it this is about swatting a pest.
Perfect example of why the US Navy needs to keep these Iranian ships away; they don’t know what the F**K they are doing.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-iran-accidentally-opens-fire-on-an-iranian-military-ship-dozens-of-iranian-soldiers-dead
These nervous, antsy, incompetent terrorists are a danger to themselves and others.
@Greg:Scared Iran so badly they are blowing up their own ships now, heh.