It sounds like “request side number of helo operating in area, over.” Meh. Routine, seems like.
GW is a pussy.
I can say by experience, that in a boat like those, going at that speed, its pretty darn noisy; the engine and splashing must have been heard on the radio. Is there a link to some audio of the boats transmisions as recorded on the US ships?, that is, one that can be certainly attributed to them (as in the "Coalition warship number 73 this is an Iranian patrol," quote). Then it would be possible to compare and contrast the procedural communications with Frankensteins threat.
Now that is one clarifyin’ mother fucker!
By the tone of that voice it may have as well been broadcasted from planet Zerg.
Is it possible they tapped into a phone sex line for someone studying English as a second language?
Nah; then it would have been "FOR THE SWARM ! !"
I haven’t seen any of the videos. Is it true that none of them show any “white boxes” or contain any audio discussing any such boxes?
The bullshit audio addition seems like the 13th strike of the clock on this one. If they’re going to dummy up some kind of verbal threat, I think the rest of the initial version of this incident is very suspect.
It woudl be fucking nice for the press to be a bit less credulous. Come on, just once, please go into a story with the mindset that this administration and the current government just might not exactly be telling you the whole truth?
Moto is supposed to buy all this shit. It’s his life mission to be a dupe and a stooge. He doesn’t mind the rug being pulled out from under him just about every single time.
We are not all Motos.
Even if we leave aside the boxes and the audio, there still is the fact that the boats were coming way too close to warships moving through the Strait of Hormuz. That in itself is a threatening act - and after the Cole incident might get a boat blasted out of the water if they get too close.
I watched the video that people are quibbling over, and the sailors on the Navy ships were sufficiently unsure of the intentions of the Iranians that they had to sound the danger signal (Rule 34, paragraph d of the International Navigation Rules) on the ship’s horn. It can clearly be heard as ten short blasts - unmistakable. Also unmistakable is how close the Iranians came.
You will note, Hentor, that I have advocated restraint in dealing with the Iranians. And for this reasonable position, you attack me as a dupe and a stooge.
I don’t think that is fair.
I invite you to watch the video in question with an open mind, mindful of the things I have pointed out and the rules of responsible navigation, and tell me what you really think.
Yet here you are again implying that blasting them from the water could be an expected result. This is fairly cloudy restraint.
But you were also asserting that these white boxes were dropped right in front of the ships, and that the contents could take a long time to examine.
What white boxes? How many? Where were they really dropped? Where are they now?
If you want to set them aside, along with the apparently “I must break you”* audio mashup, you’ve really moved a long way from both the initial claims and your posts earlier in the thread. If there were no boxes, you have indeed been duped, and your statements of alarm expressed to others here about them would put you in the role of a stooge.
If you don’t like those roles, perhaps you should engage in more qualified and skeptical consideration of future claims made by the government.
*I’m not claiming that it was really Ivan Drago’s voice. It’s just that the description of the voice, with its clarity and difference in accent, sounds so ludicrous that they could have done the kind of grabbing of video and audio that I did using two VCRs back when I was an adolescent.
I will certainly wait and see. Perhaps you ought to do the same. You seem to be jumping to some conclusions yourself.
Any thoughts on why the Navy would be sounding ten blasts on the ship’s horn if there was no danger? Any thoughts on the fact that the boats were so close to the Navy ships? Do you think that this was safe?
I would appreciate an answer.
You know what? Fuck you. I was going off the same news reports as everyone else. If you want to label someone a stooge, call CNN or the New York Times.
No it isn’t. Nobody supposes that restraint means that we will never act. It means that we won’t act unless pushed too far.
Unless, of course, you’re Hentor. I’m sure glad you don’t run things, if this is an indication of your thinking.
I don’t know how close the boats were. If someone is using a doctored video to support their claims, I’m going to be dubious about any and all of those claims. I’m going to be doubly dubious if I’ve been tricked by someone in the past.
As to the level of danger, I guess I can only go by what U.S. 5th Fleet Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff said about it:
Aw, now you’re just being a pussy about it.
What’s saddest is that it took you three consecutive posts to come up with something so weak.
Nope, some of us looked up early reports of the incident at the navy’s website and went from there, instead of uncritically accepting every anonymously sourced tidbit that popped up on the ‘news’ outlets.
I for one am getting very tired of seeing the US taken to school by the likes of the fucking Iranians.
Moto, issues of nautical safety are at some remove from issues of impending combat. Or, at least, let’s hope so.
The danger isn’t from outright fraud, the danger comes from exaggeration and misinterpretation. Personally, I don’t actually believe that LBJ deliberately fabricated the Tonkin Bay incident, I think he saw what he wanted to see, what he was inclined to see.
Consider: if Bush could have a war with Iran on his best terms…a war where Iran is clearly the aggressor, a war that would rally the people behind him, a war almost certain to be quick and victorious, a war that would advance the neo-con agenda…don’t you think he’s eager for that?
How hard is it to convince a man of something he dearly wants to believe?
And keep in mind: there are other nations, other groups, who would be tickled to death if a war between Iran and America could be fomented. Fanatical Sunni Muslims, for instance, who feel threatened by a Shia ascendancy. And, of course, Israel. Among others.
I’m not nearly so afraid of villainy as I am afraid of stupidity. And nothing enhances stupidity like fear. Well, maybe lust…
One thing in passing: these motorboats, where are the markings one would expect on a military vessel? Where’s the flag? What identifies the boats as vessels of the Iranian Navy? Where are the weapons?
Iran has two navies. The Iranian Navy is actually the smaller of the two in terms of personnel - they use the traditional corvettes, frigates, amphibs, and a couple of subs.
The larger of the two navies is employed by the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps. It uses “Boghammars” a brand name for a lightly armed Swedish speedboat that has since become a general term for an improvised naval fighting vessel.
This is what was employed in the harassment operation.
We have tangled with these Boghammars before - we went against both these and more conventional Iranian ships during the Tanker War.
It isn’t at all likely that these were Iranian civilians going against our ships, given how their society is organized. So you can figure this out.