US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta issued a clear warning Sunday that the US military will quickly respond if Iran attempts to carry out its threat to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
“We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, that's another red line for us and that we will respond to them,” Panetta said during a joint appearance with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We've invested in capabilities to ensure that if that (blocking of the Strait) happens, we can defeat that,” Gen. Dempsey said. "We would take action and reopen the strait.” [CBS, 8 January].
What a boring same old 'barking' again!
ReplyDeletemat, agreed.......
ReplyDeleteI wish the west would shut up, its better to speak softly and carry a big stick!
The warship, the UK's Royal Navy is dispatching to the Persian Gulf in yet another act of stupid sabre-rattling against Iran, is not so advanced as they have been propagating it to be.
ReplyDeleteEarlier, on Saturday, British media outlets widely covered a report by the Daily Telegraph, saying that the Royal Navy is to send its “most formidable warship HMS Daring” to the Persian Gulf region for its first mission.
Those outlets tried to paint a grand picture of a warship touted as the most advanced of its kind in the world with extreme radar tracking and maneuvering capabilities that bumped against a tug on her way to the Southampton port in September 2010.
The much-talked-about warship was damaged as it could not even get around the tug, which lost power to its engines, blocking the warship.
Again, the so-called Type 45 destroyer had to go into the dock with major engine problems on November 2010. The warship was temporarily left adrift as its engines' failure exacerbated and the Royal Navy was forced to be towed to Canada for emergency repairs.
Meanwhile, the UK government is beating the drums of war against Iran at a time when its armed forces including, the Royal Navy, are stretched thin by budget cuts.
An earlier report warned that the Royal Navy has been left without carrier-borne strike fighters to the extent that it cannot even field a Frigate or Destroyer to patrol its home waters on a full time basis.
Actually, as the report reiterated, the seas surrounding the British isles have been left without a so-called Fleet Ready Escort ship since October.
Since scaling back its surface combat fleet to 19 frigates and destroyers, the UK was having a hard time keeping up with this requirement while conducting military operations off the coast of Libya.
“I would hardly say it is a luxury. If there was a terrorism incident in UK waters, this would historically be the ship sent in to deal with it”, said former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord Alan West at the time.
“It's a big problem. If we haven't got a ship ready to do this role then it's worrying. It's a very unsatisfactory position to be in”, he added.
This comes as the large dimensions of the type 45 destroyer and its 7,350-ton displacement, which makes it the heaviest combat ship in the British navy, make it a moving target for any missile battery as military experts say any attack with more than three cruise missiles has a good chance of hitting the vessel.
Moreover, the misery of the flawed equipment for the British navy is only worsened by the fact the personnel operating those equipment are not that professional either.
In March 2007, Iranian naval forces captured 15 British Royal Navy personnel for trespassing into the Iranian territorial waters off Iran-Iraq border coast.
Their capture dealt a heavy blow to Britain's international standing after the royal navy personnel appeared in TV footage with their hands up in the air.
The sailors were later released on compassionate grounds after Iran broadcast their apology for trespassing Iranian territorial waters.
However, British policymakers have failed to learn a lesson from their past mistakes and their almost century-old animosities towards the Iranian nation and government.
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