Here's Your Video Proof
When the reports came out of the five Iranian Revolutionary Guards speedboats harassing three American warships over the weekend, self-styled "progressives" immediately launched into cries of "Tonkin Gulf II" and demanded to see video proof. Well, the Navy provided the proof, in the form of video shot from the bridge of USS Hopper (DDG 70):
(Another video report is here.) The Iranians are left with weak accusations of video "fabrication", but I'm sure the reflexive "America is always wrong" crowd will buy their version.
My take on the whole incident? Some Revolutionary Guards commander started believing their propaganda, decided to try to stir things up, and is in the process of getting his pee-pee slapped. The mullahs running Iran know that the only way they could lose power (and their lives) in the next decade or so is to provoke a war with the U.S., and while their Revolutionary Guardsmen might believe all their claptrap, they don't. They're survivors.
posted by Bubblehead at 5:16 AM
7 Comments:
>self-styled "progressives"
self-styled is the operative term, here. Both the left and the right have their wingnut fringe and conspiracy junkies.
I'd like to think that most progressives are reality-based. The reality of the video is that the idiots in speedboats were fortunate that the Navy commanders were professional.
I remember feeling nervous as OOD surface transiting on ustaboat when a Russian AGI would charge us, then veer away. Nowhere near as nervous, though, as when apparent joy-riders stupidly decided to try to get a close-up ...
1/09/2008 6:55 AM
Kind of neat that the Hopper was the ship that shot the video. Her motto is: AUDE ET EFFICE which is Latin for "Dare and Do"
The idiots are very fortunate that the ship didn't open fire. Another famous saying of Grace Hopper was "easier to get forgivenss than persmission" (don't know the latin for that one).
It may have been just Iranian hothead or they may have just been trying to find out how close they can get to American warships without being fired upon. Now they know.
Cheif Torpedoman
1/09/2008 7:49 AM
As a side comment, does anyone know if the Senate ever ratified the Law of the Sea treaty? I'm surprised the Iranian Govt hasn't brought up that little fact, and used it as an excuse to do whatever they want to in what is, in fact, their own territorial waters.
1/09/2008 9:31 AM
The US recognizes international law of territorial waters being 12 nm unless otherwise declared and defended. We do not traverse 12 nm of anyone's waters without prior clearance and permission. I assure you that the Hopper was greater than 12 nm from the Iranian coast. Same as the british boats that were boarded by iran at approxiamately 14 nm.
1/09/2008 8:22 PM
Actually, we go inside 12 nm without permission or clearances all the time -- in international straits, including in the Arabian Gulf. As an example, the Straits of Malacca are only a couple of miles wide at one point, and we sure don't ask the permission of Singapore and Indonesia to transit there. Heck, we even go through the Northwest Passage without Canada's permission.
That being said, there's no doubt we were involved in innocent passage, which we had every right to do under international law without being harassed.
1/10/2008 12:11 AM
Different set of laws for the straits you are referencing. Permission us not required for innocent passage through those straits.
1/10/2008 4:34 AM
Viewing this clip got my adrenaline pumping - and I've been retired for over twenty years.
1/10/2008 3:59 PM
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