Click pic for larger view of country we are about to attack
This guy’s friend is on a carrier in the Gulf, preparing for the first strike in what sounds like all out war with Iran. It also sounds like there’s a lot of people there who normally are all gung-ho, but for the first time in their lives are questioning the thinking (if any) of the civilian leadership. Sure, you can’t have soldiers questioning orders so they are replaced, but it sounds like the quantity of them is increasing rapidly. In other countries, you’d be wondering if somewhere along the chain of command there would be at least a few thinking coup. But this is the good, ol’ US of A, and we do what we’re told, damnit!
UPDATE: Here’s DailyKos’s take on this story.
I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.
“I know this will sound crazy coming from a Naval officer”, she said. “But we’re all just waiting for this administration to end. Things that happen at the senior officer level seem more and more to happen outside of the purview of XOs and other officers who typically have a say-so in daily combat and flight operations. Today, orders just come down from the mountaintop and there’s no questioning. In fact, there is no discussing it. I have seen more than one senior commander disappear and then three weeks later we find out that he has been replaced. That’s really weird. It’s also really weird because everyone who has disappeared has questioned whether or not we should be staging a massive attack on Iran.”
“I don’t think it’s limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after it happens. And the consequences…whatever the consequences…they will have to be lived with.
If, for some reason, you’d like to know a little about the country of Iran before we blast it, check out this site.
With all the will in the world,
Diving for dear life
When we should be diving for pearls
Welcome to the new American Empire, soon to become the old American Empire. If we continue this insanity we won’t have a country worth defending.
I’m glad I already have a Persian rug.
Highly inaccurate. The marines don’t have aircraft carriers where F-18s land, they have ships that handle the operations of helicopters and Harrier jump jets. This story was debunked by dailykos already.
I certainly hope that we do not attack Iran. However, considering they are on the brink of becoming a nuclear power and cpndsidering their bi-weekly r alleys to chant “Death to America”, I think it would be irresponsible to not have a plan in place. Just don’t use it preemptively.
Yeah, this story reads like yet more Black Op propaganda.
That being said, I am sure that Bush will attack Iran before his term is over. I expect that it will happen sometime early next year.
#4 Although I can’t verify the accuracy of the claims, the dailkos article hardly “debunks” this story.
There are some basic flaws in the evidence cited. Most obvious are that since the story has been related from other than the source minor details like proper nomenclature are to be expected.
“First off, the Marine Corps has no carriers.”
Faulty term?
“Secondly, the Marine Corps does not launch F-18s off of LHDs or LHAs”
This may be true but does not refute the claims of the LSO.
“So there is no way Maccabee’s friend has experience launching F-18s from “smaller Marine carriers.”
Which she never claimed. She didn’t state where she had landed F-18s at all.
Like I said, who knows if it’s legit or not. Certainly the inconsistencies don’t “debunk” the story.
This is definite hype, and conspiracy:
1) Possibly be over zealous democrats to emphasize the WAR HAWK nature of republicans, in an electric time period.
2) Possibly a way to scare Iran into better behavior, via cyber psycological warfare tactics.
Looks like this might be working.
Since I know at least one Marine flying F/A-18’s from a carrier in the neighborhood, I’d have to respectfully disagree with #4. There also is an F/A-18E/F. The agitprop boys call them the Hornet and the Super Hornet.
There are three US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf at present. Here’s a “local boy makes good” article from an American newspaper about one of those Hornet pilots: – http://tinyurl.com/37v4hg The photo caption in the article is from yet another “journalist” who doesn’t know which is which.
i am always afraid to confuse the illogic of committee with a conspiracy, but i’ve always wandered what the surge in iraq was really for
i think i know now
#9, Marine pilots are members of the Blue Angels squadron. No F-18 Hornets or Super Hornets land on ‘Marine aircraft carriers’ since there isn’t such a thing. There are only Naval aircraft carriers. Marine pilots can be attached to naval squadrons. The only aircraft that lands on a marine ship is a Harrier. The Joint Strike Fighter will be able to be deployed to marine ships.
Just to clear up another missconception ALL of those ships that launch manned aircraft of any kind belong to the Navy.
Wars and rumors of war. There’s a lot of problems in striking a hardened bunker with anything short of a tactical nuke. You need a lot of good intel, and based on the Iraqi fiasco I doubt they have it. Remember you don’t need a working bomb for a nuclear weapon. Many scientist thought we didn’t need the bomb in WWII, just dump Plutonium over major cities and wait for death. The Iranians know this also. Sow the wind and reap a whirlwind. Damn I’m biblical today.
Would it help if there were a good reason for the US to be ramping up operations for an apparent attack? Would you prefer it if the American people were made aware of those reasons? The current president’s father once said that the American Public does not have the right to know about matters of National Security. He said this 10 years before 9-11, and he was absolutely right. No matter what you think of the current president’s decisions of the past 7 years, there will always be much that we don’t know that still needs to be acted upon. As a citizenry, we are in the unfortunate position of only having the ability to “monday-morning” quarterback the decisions of our leaders and the only say we can exercise is at the ballot-box, often too late for any real effect.
As for Iran, these are not a dangerous and malicious people, but they are indeed being lead by a dangerous and malicious government that threaten not only the US but people all over the world.
We can say that our interests are all in the oil, but that’s an unfair generalization promoted by those who have opposed this administration from the beginning and use this as a way to promote a dishonorable intent. For those who believe that we should be less dependent on oil as a country, I say hurrah…and do something about it. Democrats, as well as Republicans have demonstrated that they have little interest in truly reducing our need for this commodity.
Until then, the protection of the free flow of oil is a very real concern and one that can not be ignored. There are many good reasons to be militarily involved in the Middle East, pick the one that suits you.
Would it help if there were a good reason for the US to be ramping up operations for an apparent attack? Would you prefer it if the American people were made aware of those reasons? The current president’s father once said that the American Public does not have the right to know about matters of National Security. He said this 10 years before 9-11, and he was absolutely right. No matter what you think of the current president’s decisions of the past 7 years, there will always be much that we don’t know that still needs to be acted upon. As a citizenry, we are in the unfortunate position of only having the ability to “monday-morning” quarterback the decisions of our leaders and the only say we can exercise is at the ballot-box, often too late for any real effect.
As for Iran, these are not a dangerous and malicious people, but they are indeed being lead by a dangerous and malicious government that threaten not only the US but people all over the world.
We can say that our interests are all in the oil, but that’s an unfair generalization promoted by those who have opposed this administration from the beginning and use this as a way to promote a dishonorable intent.
#12 I had to point out the obvious but the Harrier is not the only “aircraft” to land on a Marine ship. Rotary-wing aircraft also land on their ships.
Also, having spent a lot of time on carriers I can tell you that fiber optic cable can’t spread a bullshit rumor faster than sailors talking on a ship. 🙂
I’m wondering, in two weeks will a story be posted reminding us all how these predictions were wrong? because you guys were claiming similar things four to five months ago. But I will give you this, if this illusion of attack creates a demand for the Iranian regime to buy weapons they don’t need it will help as they are crowding out needed investment in public infrastructure in their investment-lack country.
Besides the moderates in Iran won another recent round of elections with Rafsanjani’s being elected as chairman of the Assembly of Experts, even with the West’s continued hard-line rhetoric and diplomatic pressures.
Uncle Dave,
You’ve never denied being a hack, but this post is pushing it. Between the “friend said” reporting and a “fact page” about Iran that’s bullshit, your total lack of intelligence has come into full view.
Fucking pathetic.
Here is what I heard from my PsyOps friend at the Company. There is a cotingency of infiltrators in the Iranian community that are acting as a terrorist cell. They have been there since Reagan was in office. They have over 2000 connections to local and foreign terrorists that are actively operating within Tehran. Some of the contacts are working at the nuclear plant in Arak and have access to nuclear components. The plan is to have a trail of evidence that indicates a local Iranian terrorist cell is creating a portable nuclear device about the size of a briefcase. This device will be detonated somewhere downtown Tehran. After all the blame and smoke clears. The evidence will point to the “terrorist cell” accidently exploding a nuclear device that they were constructing. This will have two major positive impacts. 1) it will discredit the whole terrorist community world wide 2) Throw Iran into political chaos. Hopefully bringing down the Islamic based government for a more secular.
#12 – The Joint Strike Fighter will be able to be deployed to marine ships.
A Joint Strike Fighter? Okay… I think the War on Drugs is getting out of hand. (cue rimshot)
#21 Pedro – My conspiracy is as good as anyone’s.
I suppose we’ll all know next week.
I’ve been very depressed over the issue of Iran, and our apparently imminent attack on that country (against all political, financial and strategic interest) for weeks. Unlike the administration, who never plans more than one step ahead (if history is to be our guide to their behavior), I actually understand strategy a tiny bit, and the fact is that Iran has some significant tactical advantages. I’ll append that explanation, ignore it if such game theory means nothing to you. But the consequences of this action, even in the best case, include the oil economy in the US grinding to a halt, because they can shut down the persian gulf while Russia and Venezuela, both more fond of Iran than us at the moment, cut off our flow as well. With so much shipped by diesel fuel brought over from those areas, the short term fuel situation might be worse than the long term oil shortage, but then again barring some sudden opening of the flow (unlikely) that can only get worse. And, of course, I doubt our strained to the brink electrical network can handle loosing 18% of total amp/hours overnight either. Our society would be hard pressed to withstand such a blow, and it’s completely predictable. The fact that our leaders seem to be running into conflict with an Eastern power without even thinking of economic warfare seems so myopic as to be impossibly dense, and yet it is.
We are not going to war with Iran. The buildup since the fall of 06 is just a friendly reminder to Iran not to tread on “our” occupied lands. It is sort of working, though some parts of the Iranian military are funding efforts by the Iraq people to free themselves of our grip.
Iran, however, is for the most part contained. They are not on the verge of becoming a nuclear power. They are not the ultimate exporter of terror (though they do have a number of organizations).
Most of the talk on TV is well…talk. I am sure that some individuals would love an all out war with Iran for oil, other natural resources or whatever floats their boat (like the sheer high of killing people and, or maybe indoctrination of alleged Christian principles). It does not really matter because we are simply not going to war with Iran.
The real strategy (which is very public information) is an all out propaganda war with some spec ops teams providing the usual disinformation, counterintelligence and radical coalitions of the younger generations being used as a means to make the current regime(s) unstable and acceptable to a bloodless coup. It is simply a war by proxy using propaganda. The real war will be a continued economic embargo by the West and their eastern allies against all Iranian imports and exports.
Worse, individuals seeks a war with Iran have two problems.
#1 Iran is not as easy a target as Iraq and, or Afghanistan. It is not an assured victory.
#2 President Bush is in no position to move US forces into a third conflict (he does have to worry about his legacy at some point). Without a legacy, he won’t have the necessary economic securities to keep him secured when he leaves office in 09.
“NEW 1 world Gov, under Corp Rule”
sounds like shadowrun “in the beginning”
Anyone see signs of “Dr. Strangelove”??
“Hal, open the pod bay door, I want the HELL off this planet”.”Their NUTS”
doesnt anyone KNOW that a PRESIDENT has never been Kicked out/deposed during a war?? We are going to need to get rid of this one SOON, if not sooner.
This was on digg last week. The story is utter bullshit. Just more anti Bush propaganda.
We really need to track this back…
It sounds faked, or someone placing words into the USA mouth, to force a confrontation.
Darn. I knew I should be saving all those posts by people objecting to the US being in Iraq. How many of them were saying we should instead invade Iran or North Korea?
The same names now saying we should stay away from Iran, too.
“But when you liason with administration officials who don’t know that Iranians don’t speak Arabic and have no idea what Iranians live like, then you start having second thoughts about whether these administration officials are even competent.”
So this “junior grade LSO in a training position” gets to liaise with administration officials? – or is it this writer’s friend who knows someone who talked to an admin official confused about spoken versus written Arabic in Iran that’s causing “all just waiting for this administration to end”?
“Today, orders just come down from the mountaintop and there’s
no questioning. In fact, there is no discussing it.”
Ahhh, for the good old days…
“her associates are just hoping that the election brings in someone new, some new situation, or something.”
But what could that be? How could that happen? Maybe they’re all hoping, somehow, to get a new Republican president, do you think?
RBG
Bullcrap.
Without minutely picking this apart, I will point out just a few facts.
First, if there was any validity, then ALL communications from the crew would be censored.
There is no way the public will know the location of any cruise missiles let alone the fact they are being shipped anywhere or that they are in demand.
The source in these bullcrap rants is always “a friend”. Well, “friends” don’t let “friends” give away National Secrets.
Carrier Attacks are named after the main carrier in the group. The group is not named.
Strategy is done on a need to know basis. A junior officer has no need to know where or when a operation is scheduled unless they are directly involved and even then not until they are ready to go.
Seldom are there any explanation for an officer’s replacement. Usually they are just rotated out. Since there are currently more Flag Officers than realistic slots for them, they are often rotated more often to give others sea time.
The thing that really amazes me is the number of people that will blindly start screaming how bad our government is because they have this imminent plan to blast Iran into the stone age. Effen Sheeple !!! READ the article. Think about it. Ask questions. Just quit taking everything at face value. This is the fucking internet for god’s sake.