Whoever is responsible for the attacks on the oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, I’m deeply suspicious of America’s motives and their so called evidence.
This ratcheting up of tension has occurred because Trump is a moron who doesn’t understand that the previous deal on nuclear energy in return for a lift in sanctions was the best deal the West could hope for and that by throwing it aside he has created the possibility for all out war.
America’s so called evidence could be credible if we hadn’t been conned by them in the past with weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist. This evidence is in direct contradiction with the actual crew of the Japanese tanker who say they were struck by something flying, and the similarity to the Gulf of Tonkin incident when the US faked an attack by the North Vietnamese to start war still hangs over American actions.
This image doesn’t prove anything…
…it’s someone doing something.
Hardly the level of certainty that would call for war, yet that’s exactly what Trump risks by increasing the number of soldiers in the region to 10 000 with a carrier strike group.
Is Trump smart enough to avoid war?
A dangerous sitution yes but hardly a stroke of strategic genius and military prowess.
At any one time in US bases in Qatar and Saudi Arabia is 200 strike Aircraft from US marine F-18z and F-35s, thousands of battle hardened vertebrates of the Syrian and Iraq war, at least 2 Burk Class Destroyers and a conventional Ohio class submarine all of which packs around 600 tomahawk cruise missiles that could easily overwhelm Iranian defences and set them up for a ground invasion and regime change all with out any extra show and tells from a carrier battle group.
The addition of a US aircraft carrier and so on and so forth is for PR purposes of which Presedint Donald J Trump has much experience in during his reality TV days. A total way of resources as the amateur puches out widely at the speed ball that has so far failed to land a strike.
Black smoke from a false flag
The “evidence” so far is
1. a hole above the waterline in two tankers and a mine attached to one of them. The crew of the tanker said the mine was one reason why they got off the tanker.
2. an Iranian patrol boat arriving afterwards and taking the mine off the tanker.
3. the more evidence is a photo of supposedly the same patrol boat travelling afterward.
Removing a mine off a tanker, which was a danger to it, is the same evidence that occurs when a fire crew put out a fire (as if that proves they started it earlier). And a photo of the fire engine being driven away afterwards is not further evidence of guilt of being involved in arson.
This is another WMD farce, to justify another act of war by a nation with a UN veto.
Where are the military expert comments – how do mines cause a hole above the waterline? The original reports were of “torpedos” in the air. How does a magnetic mine get to be attached to a hull that far above the waterline?
I lost interest after one of the tanker skippers said they were hit by a torpedo and the ship was doing its floaty thing. If it was a real torpedo it would’ve exploded under the tanker using the explosive pressure wave to force the up and suddenly down therefore breaking the tankers back.
As for the limpet mine it’s bad form (operator error) to place it above water as you not allowing nature to do its thingy and even equally bad form not using a bigger limpet mine with hollow charge as all modern tankers a now by law double hull.
So who is kidding who atm? It’s 500 plus days for the US election, so there’s the first clue.
Agreed, this is not evidence, at least from the public’s perspective (no video metadata and traceability, the use of US authority as authenticity etc.). Quality wise, the silent movies of the early 20th century had more definition. As for the limpet mines, why would a military naval unit in broad daylight be huddled around a potentially live bomb on a ship’s hull, only to then seemingly shuck off the limpet like they were removing a rock mussel. To treat an unexploded ordnance as a bag of unexploded microwave popcorn is one thing, but to try to persuade the public to go to war based on what looks like cell phone footage from the nineties is another (whoever is responsible for the sabotages).
The live footage either came from UAV, Maritime Aircraft such as a USN P8/P3 or another ISR platform.
The sensor image shown here is colour which has a range around 5-6 km’s from the tgt and the B/W IR images the range from tgt is about 50- 20km’s depending on what ISR platform is being use at the time. One time of the Gulf the crew got a bored on Snoopy Flt we found a pod of dolphins about 50kms out from the P-3 and decided to track them, so we get some colour footage/ stills for shits and giggles for the kiddies back home.
As for the jokers next to the tanker is anyone guess
I’ve found the best source of keeping up with the US and Iran as well as Venezuela and other theatres is American blogger “The Last American Vagabond.” Well worth checking out his last few videos on Iran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOWv95I61Zg
The Yanks can deter, deny, defend and defeat these attacks on the shipping though the Straits of Hormuz if they adopt the Convoy System for all shipping and there by de-escalate before it gets out of hand.
When the Poms still had a major Royal Navy presence in the Gulf they adopted a convoy system, which then was followed by the Yanks in the last so-called “Tanker War” during the Iran- Iraq War in the 80’s.
Yup, and if Iran falls that means ISIS will be the boss of Iraq and Syria. Traditional calculus would say that The US is hopeless when it comes to winning The War on Terror.
I am sure you are well aware that terrorist activity does not arise in a vacume. And that poor Iranian sand farmers can’t turn into an army of US Fleet killers like in Red Alert.
Not sure if you recall the major war game ex the US did some yrs ago? Where they did an ex former USMC General is OPOF in a free play war game, who blew the US forces and it allies out of the water and in the air using Iranian Military swarming tactics. The dumb asses running the ex had reset the war game with plenty of restrictions on old mate. to a point where he said to every other tom, dick and Harry on blue force and the umpires, you can stick this war game where the sun don’t shine and walked out. Because the umpires and blue force didn’t like the outcome.
Swarming tactics when use properly weather it’s Air base, Sea base, Land base or combination of the 3 can do a a lot of damage to the other side. For example:
The Rhodesia Fire Force Tactics,
The Argies with there Airstrikes on the RN during the Falklands and their tactics later became part the RNZAF ACF TTP’s (SOP’s) for A4’s and Lead in Trainers. In fact the RNZAF took it to a whole new level after Project Kahu by linking in the Navy and the Maritime Aircraft which made pretty much made them invincible in their so called crap out A4’s.
Actually the Darken guys now flyingour ex A4’s are using those same tactics in the US and achieving some pretty good kill rates against there more fancy opponents such as F series fighter including the F35 JSF in low level (10,000ft and below) in ACM’s aka dogfighting.
General Paul K Van Riper. How could I forget a bad ass name like that. America seems to be blessed with bad ass’d named generals. Patton, Lee, Eisenhower, Pershing, Schwarzkopf. And Bradley.
Y’know If it wasn’t for Helen Clark and Phill Goff coming in and taking over the F-16 deal I may have stuck around. NZDF is apart of the government just like the police or the courts. So, yeah. Being pro government but anti NZDF, Y’know being anti 4 frigate navy and anti ACF is just dumb.
I just don’t think we have to respect these guys who have no respect for people who who are in service. There’s a different between hero worship and worshiping the military as an institution, and having plain old respect, Y’know respect for your elders ect.
I grew up in Beachhaven, across the bay from Whanuapai and in Palmerston North where we’d go to all the Airshows at Ohakea. It’s interesting that people who live and work in and around military bases don’t have anything to do with NZDF with out being in it.
So in lots of ways NZDF in being overrun from with in, by people who NZDF personal would be very broken up having to fight for at all. Let’s face it. Very few sign up to shoot our own bureaucratic nightmares.
The phycology factor here is a lot more important IMO. Killing those who make the weapons of war (civilians) is a prerequisite to winning a war.
Sun Tzu said it best (not exact quotes).
The smartest general is the one who can take a city intact.
If you surround the enemy, don’t kill them. Doing so gives you a good chance of having them join your side.
Of the 5 type of spies, local spies (people who live in the land you are invading) are among the best to have.
Always be wary of double agents…,
and the list of Sun Tzu’s rules go on and on and hand in hand and most of them still are not outdated by modern warfare.
Sam how much of NZDF thinking is independent of US/UK instructions.
I remember the first F16 at Ohakea well.
NZDF high ranking personnel must be approved by USDF.
A Game of puppetry where NZFS will defend US interests not NZ.
Sam your point is interesting, especially as the “War On Terror” is a lie. The global terrorist id plainly the USA.
Most of the world knows that.
Sleepy Kiwis just snooze on after the RNZ news loaded with US propaganda.
Mailed as reply to another blog, but a better fit here.
Don’t know if anybody is paying attention, but these murderous thugs are preparing to invade another sovereign country. Will be interesting to see if Mark and co. will be keen to send our hundred men and a tug boat to make”the coalition of the willing” look honest??
An interesting article, with interesting tit bits.
https://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/the-royal-navy-and-escalating-tensions-in-the-arabian-gulf/
Pro-war lying by omission by TVNZ
Everybody needs to put in a formal complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority for TVNZ over their pro-war lying by omission.
On June 15 TVNZ news at 6 reported on the attack on the Kokuka Courageous, a Japanese owned oil tanker, as being the result of mines placed there by the Iranians, but did not report the Japanese ship owner’s denial.
The more complaints TVNZ receive over their lack of balanced reporting of this attack, the more likely they will have to respond.
The following is the text of the email I sent them.
From the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards handbook.
On June 15, TVNZ news at 6, gave a report on the attack launched against a Japanese owned oil tanker in the Gulf of Hormuz while the Japanese Prime Minister was in Iran.
Not once did TVNZ News at 6 report the fact that the Japanese owners and crew of the crippled oil tanker disputed the US version of events, that the tanker was crippled by limpet mines placed there by the Iranians.
TVNZ news reported the US version of the attack on a Japanese oil tanker in the Gulf of Hormuz, verbatim. TVNZ deliberately omitted the Japanese version of events.
The US claimed that the Japanese ship was damaged with limpet mines attached to the ship and that this was proof that the attack was planned and carried out by the Iranians.
The Japanese claimed that their ship had been hit by “flying objects”. The Japanese report was left out of the TVNZ, coverage.
TVNZ News could not have been unaware of the Japanese crew’s version of events as it was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that the Japanese report contradicting the US claim of mines was the number 1 searched story in the world.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/japanese-ship-owner-contradicts-us-account-of-how-tanker-was-attacked-20190615-p51xzz.html
This is a matter that could negatively impact the New Zealand public.
War is the most serious thing that a country or government can decide.
The public can not make an informed decision about whether or not New Zealand should support going to war with Iran, if they are only given one side of the story. Especially when there is a very strong and credible counter narrative.
The following News cycle saw no follow up by TVNZ News of this report, or correction of the glaring omission of the Japanese testimony. In fact this event was never mentioned again.
This is clearly a breach of balance. That it was a breach in favour of a pro-war narrative makes the breach much more serious.
I ask that TVNZ redress the dangerous lack of balance in your report on the attack against the Japanese tanker Kokuka Courageous.
Just look at RNZ’s CEO and board. It is a stacked pack.
But yes complain every day.
I don;t see it changing or the present govt trying to change it.
Pressure from the US bunker in Thorndon will see to that.
Mike Pompeo and John Bolton find the notion of war with Iran sexually arousing. Especially Bolton, whose toxic brand of sabre-rattling xenophobia is both disturbing and slightly comical. War is a huge money-spinner for the US military-industrial complex – it justifies further bloating of their already gargantuan budget, it’s a brilliant distraction in the run-up to what promises to be a particularly dirty election, and it allows vested interests to basically annex natural resources in the conflict zone along with profiteering by companies like Haliburton who make out like bandits rebuilding things their own military has bombed into non-existence.
For the life of me, I’ll never understand how anyone in the US armed forces can willingly go to war knowing what they know about the reasons behind these sorts of wars, and how veterans of previous wars have been so woefully treated by their own government. “Thanks for your service. You had both your legs blown off by an IED and you’d like treatment for PTSD? Yeah… it’s not in the budget. Sorry, buddy. Have fun with your clinical depression and downward spiral into an abyss of drugs and alcohol.” You are literally putting your life on the line to make the Dick Cheneys and Donald Rumsfelds of the world richer. You’re not saving starving orphans from genocidal despots. You’re just perpetuating the lie. I understand being ‘proud to serve’, but being proud to serve the interests of guys like Trump, Bolton and Pompeo? Fuck that.
If you ever get a chance work or even have chat with the OR’s and some of the Officer Corp then you why they blindly go of to war.
The smarts one are either in the Airforce, Navy and those that finally seen light.
1000% WENSLEYDALE.
I dont usually go in for conspiracy theiries, but its effing bloody clear as day that this is a bogus operation by Saudi (?) (US?) forces to portray Iran as the culprit of a supposed unprovoked attack
I call bullshit
Just as I called bullshit on the so called poison gas attacks in Syria supposedly carried out by rebel forces
Nothing can be believed in the ME excpt one thing: we in the west have no business being there, selling various despotic regimes billions of dollars of weaponry, interfering in their political affairs, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Ok thats several things
But i think we get the picture
Anyone who still thinks Trump is opposed to military adventurism in the ME is a fool
Trump *WILL* lead the US into another war and this time it may spark direct conflict with the Russians who are allied to Iran
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