HMS Argyll
Posted on 02/07/2012 7:31:58 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Britain had to plead with US to take part in Iran flotilla
Britain was forced to plead with the US to take part in the flotilla challenging Iranian power in the Gulf after American commanders decided the Royal Navy had nothing to contribute to the mission.
Defence sources have revealed that the Americans only relented and allowed a Royal Navy frigate to join the mission following an intervention from Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
The revelation that US defence chiefs saw little military value in UK participation will raise new questions about Britain’s international clout after Coalition defence cuts.
Amid rising tensions in the region, the Royal Navy last month deployed HMS Argyll, a Type 23 frigate, to the Gulf.
The ship accompanied a US carrier strike group made up of an aircraft carrier with a full complement of fighters, a heavy cruiser and several destroyers.
A French frigate, the La Motte-Picquet, was also part of the flotilla which sailed through the Straits of Hormuz. Iran has staged wargames in the area and threatened to block the straits, a vital supply route for oil exports.
The US also has another carrier strike group in the Gulf and a third heading for the region.
The disparity in vessel numbers means the British and French presence in the flotilla was of greater diplomatic than military significance.
The question of allied participation in the naval operation is understood to have triggered concern in Whitehall and led to a sudden shift in Britain’s stance.
British ministers initially signalled they would accept the Washington’s conclusion that did not need allies to take part.
But the British position changed after Mr Sazkozy insisted to the US that a French warship
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
HMS Argyll
Dear UK,
Please hold on a while longer.
Hopefully, we’ll flush the t*rd this Nov, and next year you can hopefully arrest him after we send the sorry sack of feces back to Kenya.
I cannot think of a human being (?) for which I have less regard than our Cretin-in-Chief.
Our current president has serious issues with England. It has to do with England’s treatment of Kenya. Now, Obama is in a position to “pay them back”.
This is exactly why the NBC clause is in the constitution.
For your list.
Yep!!!
Is the Argyll that little yellow and black job?
Thanks Army Air Corps
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
The US and the UK - the race to the bottom.
He's undoubtedly busy right now compiling a new tape of his greatest speech excerpts to present as a gift to Her Majesty on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee celebration.
Cheaper than commissioning a bust of General George Washington to present to her, I suppose.
Leni
This is a prime example of our fearless leader’s leadership style -
LEADING FROM BEHIND
It was praised by both lefties and righties (cough*Frum*cough) alike, admired so much around the world even now.
Hate to say it, but that boat reminds me of the USS Caine.
I have to think that this decision to initially exclude the British frigate was undertaken at the level of the 5th US Fleet (Bahrain) or possibly by the Commander, Battle Group. The reasons may have been as simple as that of timing — IOW’s “How long do we have to delay while waiting for the HMS Argyl to form up?”
I love criticizing Obama as much as the next guy, but this probably isn’t related to Obama’s loathing of all things Britsh.
Why? Because they are both gray? No similarity.
I agree. Also, the Navy may have decided that one more frigate was not worth sacrificing unity-of-command.
The implied corollary to the Monroe Doctrine--under which we protect this Hemisphere from European adventures, is that Europe protects its backyard from local threats.
Does anyone really believe that Iran poses a comparable threat to all Western interests--equivalent to Soviet Communism? We were protecting ourselves in European spheres, when we propped them up in the Cold War. But we do neither ourselves nor them, a favor, when we do not demand that they retake responsibility for their national interests--and there is no way that this is not more in their interests than in ours.
My other concern in this, is this. Some of our Republican candidates have delivered some pretty hysterical remarks over Iran (Pseudo Pragmatism). I really believe that Obama is maneuvering a "summer surprise," to save the election. How can Republicans, who have taken the plunge to the overreach that dealing with an Iranian threat is somehow primarily our duty, properly respond to an Obama attack on Iran this summer?
Again, we should demand that Europe reassume its traditional roles in maintaining Eastern Hemisphere stability, before it sounds like a desperate election ploy!
William Flax
Britain and France take the responsibilty, and both, esp the UK, has always punched above its weight.
It is perhaps the other major European nations that dont pull their weight.
It is the same idea, as that involved in wanting to restore a sense of personal & local responsibility in all parts of all States in the American Union--not just in my own Ohio. People benefit by not having others do for them what they have the natural ability to do for themselves.
Are you from Scotland? If so, what part?
Bill Flax
Ayrshire. Which is on the west coast, s/w of Glasgow.
‘Rabbie Burns’ country. William Wallace (Ellerslie) and Robert the Bruce (Turnberry Castle) were also born in Ayrshire.
Main towns in Ayrshire are:
Ayr (birthplace of John McAdam, the inventor of tarmac)
Alloway (Robert Burns)
Kilmarnock (birthplace of Johnnie Walker whisky)
Irvine (inventor of the pneumatic tyre and the Dunlop company, John Boyd Dunlop, was born within the town’s boundary, in a village called Dreghorn)
Saltcoats
Largs (birthplace of Sir Thomas Brisbane)
Kilwinning
Troon (hosts Open Golf every few years)
Girvan
Ayrshire inventions: tarmac, rubber tyre, pencillin, gas lighting.
Ayrshire map:
http://www.mcintyre.demon.co.uk/images/ayrmap.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrshire
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