This incident would have been far worse just a few years ago. It helped a lot that Kerry had prior experience negotiating with the Iranians.
Ideally, there shouldn’t have been any incident. The Iranian Navy should have offered us a tow line and assistance. Get the disabled ships into the nearest port for repairs. But, relations have been strained for so long that wasn’t likely to happen. We’re lucky it didn’t drag on a couple weeks like it did for the Brits a few years ago.
They would have gained a great deal by that, but they are testosterone poisoned idiots.
Wasn’t the nearest port… theirs? That they were taken into?
Right. That was the nearest port, and the American boats were indeed brought in there, yes? So the only sticky point for some people appears to be that the sailors were detained and their vessel searched, rather than just being handed a tow line and helped out. Is that how we would have treated, say, a Chinese navy ship that intruded on US waters (as happened in September, off Alaska), if it had been intercepted and claimed engine trouble?
I was thinking about that listening to NPR today. “Here’s a pot of coffee and some food, the Boss just wants me to be sure that there are no cameras or spy stuff on your boat. You want us to tow you back, or your guys to come get you?”
I’m not so sure. The military is notoriously Republican-leaning, certainly a couple of mid level officers could have orchestrated this to make Obama look bad and/or undermine the Iran nuclear deal and/or instigate a war.
In 1974, a Soviet reconnaissance plane landed in Gambell, Alaska due to weather problems and low fuel. It looks like most of the locals treated them kindly, and the US government (after going back and forth with the Soviet embassy) provided enough fuel to return home. I don’t see any indication that the plane was searched, though the US government did request (and receive) the names of the crew members.
Thanks for the link, nice story.
It seems a bit different in that the pilots knew what they were doing, and the Soviets contacted the Americans, rather than Americans just finding Soviets in US territory.
The Americans sent the Soviets on their way, relatively promptly and unharmed… as the Iranians, in fact, did for the Americans in the present case.
The American sailors were briefly treated as hostiles, though, and apparently some of us are shamed and outraged by that.
*certainly a couple of mid level officers could have orchestrated this to make Obama look bad *
Are you kidding me?? This isn’t some office shenanigans we’re talking about here. This is the U.S. Navy!
The flip side of this tho is that oBAMA could have orchestrated this in an effort to make himself look good. Now that sounds a lot more likely.
Phu Cat
It was a boat going from Kuwait to Bahrain. This sort of trip happens every day of the week there is no reason to think that they were doing any spying, there are much more effective ways to spy especially considering how skinny the gulf is and absolutely no reason for them to cross into Iranian waters to do the spying. Also if they were spying there is no way the Iranians would have been aloud to board.
This just makes no sense. There is no way they could prevent Iranians from boarding – they only have a crew of 5. Are they supposed to get into a firefight? One heavy machinegun burst could kill the whole crew.
Also, US spy ships and planes have a long history of being boarded, seized or shot down. That’s not to say the patrol boats were spying, but it is completely irrelevant to whether they would allow a hostile power aboard. They would decline under almost any circumstances at all, and then the questions turn to whether the hostile power is willing to use force or not, or whether the crew is willing to use force to resist a boarding. Almost certainly, assuming they were in radio communications with their headquarters, the decision to resist or not would be made at a higher level.
They could have scuttled; they didn’t even try. Also, one naval officer rolled over and apologized faster than a bored dog with a belly itch. (So, why no Bergdahl-style court martial for him, btw?)
Someone earlier repeated the existence of a Kerry apology on FOX . All I can find concerning what he actually said was that he thanked the Iranian authorities for cooperation and a quick response.
An over-night return of the sailors in that part of the world IS a quick response and I for one am glad that it didn’t take 444 days.
If anyone has a link showing a Kerry apology, I sure would like to invite them to link it so we could all see it. Thoughts…?
My best guess is that thanking a country is the same as apologizing to it in Fox-Speak.
The navy is going to investigate the incident in a very detailed manner. I would be shocked if a few officers were not removed from command. If some sort of conspiracy to cause the incident is found you can bet there will be jail time.
There is just zero chance any American officers will spend time on prison for this. I would offer to bet, but I can’t suggest precise enough conditions on which to make one.
I agree, I’m saying that if some mid level officers had decided to create the incident in order to embarrass Obama they would have jail time in their future. I think though there is no chance they did this in order to embarrass Obama.
No, I meant that even if they DID that they wouldn’t spend time in jail. It would be too politically embarrassing to have a trial like that. Apologies for being unclear
Two heavily armed boats have the means to resist capture and also have a duty to do so under the US Military’s Code of Conduct.