Meryl Yourish, “Iranians threatening U.S. ships”
Today, Yourish tackles the newest incident in a string of intensifying tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. She notes that, according to a Pentagon report, a number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats made threatening maneuvers against three United States Naval vessels: the USS Port Royal, the USS Hopper, and the USS Ingraham. Yourish’s entry delves more into details of the apparent provocation, more of which will likely continue to come out over the next few hours and days, as her posting was based on one of the earliest reports of the incident (the Guardian Unlimited article Yourish cites was released 9:46 AM EST, while BBC didn’t report the incident until 12:40 PM EST).
As I first read this posting, two different images began developing in my mind. Side by side they stood, the USS Cole burning in the port of Aden in Yemen and American destroyers firing barrages at supposed Vietcong gunboats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Harbor those images in your mind, and I’ll return to them shortly.
An unnamed source at the Pentagon paraphrased a message that the US ships received from the Revolution Guards boats: “We’re coming at you and you’ll explode in a couple minutes.” Not to leave any of their words in obscurity, the Iranian units allegedly began charging the group and dropping packages into the water around the three naval vessels.
Back to the images now…
First of all, the Iranian “harassment” (as the AP phrased it with the utmost sensitivity and political correctness) was an attack against American sovereignty, not unlike the strike on the USS Cole. True, no lives were lost and all American vessels are still floating on the world ocean, but only a margin of seconds prevented the encounter from escalating into a fiery battle.
This brings in the second image. Perhaps the Iranians were trying to create their own sort of Tonkin Bay, in which the “American war machine” tried to invade the sovereign waters of the Iranian Republic (as their propaganda would surely proclaim). Then, when the heroic Revolutionary Guard, the bastions of Iranian liberty and solidarity, tried to warn the Western invaders that they were in danger of violating their waters, the American aggressors callously and maliciously opened fire in a symbolic declaration of war and martyring the valiant defenders of Iran (for this reason, at least, I am grateful that our soldiers showed restraint in firing off the shots that would have put the Revolutionary Guard boats at the bottom of the strait; the less material Ahmadinejad has for his inflammatory, anti-American addresses the better).
Surprisingly, the Iranian government confirmed the incident soon after the press released the story. As was expected, however, they denied any hostile or aggressive actions or messages against the US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The government, cheeky as usual, claimed their reckless taunts over the radio and their threatening actions did not happen; rather, the government claimed the Iranian vessels were doing a routine inspection and left the incident ground as soon as they recognized the American vessels.
Less than a year ago, Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized fifteen British sailors and marines in international waters. Until only recently, Atomic Mahmoud has been running his mouth against the whole civilized world about his nation’s peaceful nuclear ambitions that no one is allowed to see (trust me!). Today, they threatened United States Naval vessels and American lives, once again, in international waters, and then ran away like scared dogs in the last second before our soldiers could show the Iranians what kind of threats we are capable of making. I don’t know where Ahmadinejad wants to lead his Islamic Republic, but if you ask me, he’s heading right for the jaws of death.
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