Posted on 02/22/2017 6:26:50 AM PST by monkapotamus
The United States should expect a "strong slap in the face" if it underestimates Iran's defensive capabilities, a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday, as Tehran concluded war games.
Since taking office last month, U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to get tough with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic after its ballistic missile test on Jan. 29 that it was playing with fire and all U.S. options were on the table.
"The enemy should not be mistaken in its assessments, and it will receive a strong slap in the face if it does make such a mistake," said General Mohammad Pakpour, head of the Guards’ ground forces, quoted by the Guards' website Sepahnews...
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
The next time they throw a slap they’re going to pull back a bloody stump.
Try to analyze the situation in todays political realities and not those of the recent past. The US due to new technologies is self sufficient in oil. Even if it were not, oil exporters are desperate for hard currency and will sell to anyone with the means to pay for it. Otherwise their economies collapse and they experience severe political instability. That includes Iran . Can you imagine them closing the Persian Gulf and telling China that there will be no more exports of oil or the price will thanks to them skyrocket? If they ever tried to close the Gulf it would mark the beginning of the end of the bizarre mullah regime. Yet let it be the world and those with the greatest vested interests to shed blood and treasure. Over the last sixty years American involvement in the region has been costly in human and material resources, has spawned numerous unnecessary intractable enemies, has not enhanced the security of the American people and has been a futile exercise. There will never again be a 1974 type oil embargo. Even our bitterest enemies such as Venezuela beat a path to our doors to sell their oil for the hard currency they desperately need. Iran, like most of the predominantly Muslim countries will eventually collapse and transform. Islamic culture is simply not compatible with the values ,institutions and practices of the modern world that the vast majority of rational people covet. It is the reason most of the Mideast is chaotically violent or inherently unstable. It is also why people are voting with their feet and seeking solace in the lands formerly known as Christendom. Try to comprehend the real situation and be a bit more judicious before you advocate the US being involved in yet more foreign entanglements and quagmires. Reflect carefully on what has happened over the last ten years.
Iran has continue to issue attach/death threats against diplomatic missions/personnel, US Business interests/employees, and US Nationals abroad. They have used their embassy in Lebannon for terrorism and holding captives and they sent teams of Iranian Guards/Hezbolla/Hamas into S.America to do pre-planning on US diplomatic missions for future war. If Iran is attacked they will strike US assets, but our diplomats will be on the front lines of attack (I know a couple who deserve Iranian attention) but having reitred from both the Army and State, I assure you I took seriously the public statements since 1979 from Iran that they will attack diplomatic missions. I served with two people who were in twin Embassy bombings in Africa; one guy was in Beruit when the USMC barracks was attacked.
Or have your intestines removed.
aint gonna happen...we are aware..throw the fist, draw back a nub..
Can’t we just ask Senator McLame and Grahamnesty what the Iranians plans are? for the US, they are still Butt Buddies I thought and I would bet my LAST NICKEL both of them are in the meetings with the Mullahs planning attacks on the US.?
We should nuke one of their cities and then ask them to repeat their threat.
We need to do something. The hammer has to come down hard, fast, and sooner rather than later.
So did Tojo, Hitler, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Husseien, Khadaffi, ..... ask them how that turned out.
When Americans get pissed, we don’t burn cities.... we burn countries. So keep up the yapping. One nuke is all it’ll take to have the Muslim Mideast experience what the Khan did to Baghdad in 1258.
I am certain President Trump will not restrain the US military in responding to provocative attacks by Iran. Let the Iranians take pot shots at US Navy ships in the gulf and their gun boats will be promptly sunk
As another Navy vet, the U.S.S. Cole incident was a whole lot worse. We had deck-mounted 50’s locked and loaded in every foreign port except Singapore, Keelung, Kaosiung and Yokosuka.
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, They are going to smash all the cruise missiles we fire at them with their hi-tech military buildings. Yawn.
Never underestimate your opponent..
Putting aside the condescending tone, I have considered all of the above and more. Oil is a global commodity. It is fungible. Even if the US attains energy independence, the demand for oil will continue and probably increase as the world's population grows from the current 7 billion to 9 billion. There will be no problem in selling oil although the price will be volatile placing economies that depend on oil exports in an exposed position as they ride the roller coaster of fluctuating prices and revenue.
If they ever tried to close the Gulf it would mark the beginning of the end of the bizarre mullah regime.
It is not a matter of closing it, but controlling it. We don't want Iran in that position. OPEC has tried to manage the price of oil by controlling the supply. Curtailing exports decreases the supply and raises the price. US energy independence makes that more difficult.
There will never again be a 1974 type oil embargo. Even our bitterest enemies such as Venezuela beat a path to our doors to sell their oil for the hard currency they desperately need.
As mentioned, OPEC has less control over supply as the cartel's ability to do so has waned for various reasons. The Russians are very dependent upon oil revenues. Whether the various non-OPEC oil exporters can make some arrangements with OPEC to control the price of oil remains problematic.
Iran, like most of the predominantly Muslim countries will eventually collapse and transform.
Most of the predominantly Muslim countries in the world are not oil exporters. And those that are will not collapse and transform. You are living in a fantasy world if you believe that to be the case. I have lived a total of nine years in three predominantly Muslim countries. Over the years, the fundamentalists have become more and more in control. Any imagined economic collapse will not impact deeply held religious beliefs and result in some magical transformation of the culture. The overwhelming majority of muslim countries are poor to begin with.
Islamic culture is simply not compatible with the values ,institutions and practices of the modern world that the vast majority of rational people covet. It is the reason most of the Mideast is chaotically violent or inherently unstable. It is also why people are voting with their feet and seeking solace in the lands formerly known as Christendom. Try to comprehend the real situation and be a bit more judicious before you advocate the US being involved in yet more foreign entanglements and quagmires. Reflect carefully on what has happened over the last ten years.
LOL. You haven't a clue. I am the one who has and is living in reality while you are in some sort of fantasy world. What exactly are you basing your opinions on?
The USS Cole should never have been in port there to begin with.
All we have to do is take out their one and only gas refinery and their economy goes into a death spiral. At that point they will lash out and try and blame the great satan.
As for their pissy patrol boats, fire a warning shot and then if they continue sink them.
The Saudi’s need us to keep their oil flowing yet continue to fund radical West hating Wahhabi version of islam. It’s time for the house of Saudi to make some changes if they want our help. Fracking has ended their reign of economic terror on the US. They need us way more than we need them.
We don't get the bulk of our oil imports from the Saudis. They supply about 11%. Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Columbia, and Venezuela supply significant amounts. We get 40% of our oil from Canada. If the US becomes energy independent, Canada will be hurt more than the Saudis.
What reign of economic terror are you referring to? The Saudis have been the ones who have helped stabilize world oil prices and when OPEC threatened reductions in oil production to increase prices, the Saudis increased production to offset them.
They need us way more than we need them.
The global economy, of which we are a part, needs Saudi oil. The Saudis have been very helpful to us in many ways. If the radical Islamic fundamentalists ever topple the House of Saud, the ramifications would be devastating for us and our allies. It would be a replay of Iran ten times over.
On what am I basing my opinions? Try history( recent and ancient) current events and an analysis of outcomes of the past sixty years of American involvement in the region. Suffice to say that your position can be characterized as neo con and mine as an American first isolationism. No doubt you cheered loudly when GW Bush invaded Iraq. I didn’t. The things I wrote and said then were not much different than what Congressman Ron Paul was saying from the floor of the House. If you read his speeches , say what you like about him ( and I don’t agree with him on many issues) but he was remarkably prescient and correct in his analysis. It was indeed a quagmire. It did not stabilize the region, thousands of brave young Americans were killed, horribly maimed and psychologically ruined. Their sacrifices did not enhance American security. The cost in treasure led to severe strains and recession in the US economy and led to the disastrous election of Barack Obama. The world has changed, Islamic culture is not compatible with modernity and not sustainable . American interventions have been costly and largely futile. You ought to think very carefully before you endorse another American intervention in that volatile, rapidly changing region. BTW perhaps you can explain why you define the vile House of Saud, supporters and protectors of the Wahhabi, originators of 9/11 as our “ally”.
I refer to OPEC and the Saudi’s with the oil embargoes of the 1970’s I lived through. Again it was Saudi’s who flew planes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon.
The Saudi’s cut prices and increased production recently to try and drive US fracking companies out of business. None of this was for our benefit.
With the Saudi’s being primarily sunnah and Iran being shia an attempted Iranian overthrow would result in a blood bath for both countries. The Saudi’s and Iran have funded most of the terrorism in the world. Again we don’t need them anymore if they are actively funding people that seeks to murder Americans here and abroad. It is time for the Saudi’s to enter the 21st century and stop support for the barbarism that is wahhabi.
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