I am just praying that the current Administration serves its term and go quietly, no attacks on Iran please, I know they are not angels. But I have seen my electricity bills and nearly everything skyrocket. Whatever they are, just let them be. If they want to bomb themselves to pieces or elect an Islamic govt, it is none of Bush concerns. I do not think Iran will really dare to attack a warship or frigate of USA using fast boats. They are just playing a game. I am just hoping Bush won't use this excuse to launch an attack. Not another one, one Iraq is enough troubles.
Bush has already been a huge disaster and a MISERABLE FAILURE. There is nothing more dangerous that a man with nothing to lose. The Bush legacy is going to be a very bad one, it's already bad, I have a feeling it will get a lot worse before he leaves office.
something tells me hes gonna get us into a war with iran and sneak out the back door laughing his ass off. if that does happen ill be the first person in a group to his house to kick his ass.
I have a slightly different opinion on this. IMHO I doubt there would be a war, currently even rising the troop level in Iraq seems to be a nightmare for the Bush Administration, they simply do not have enough troops. If they really want a war with Iran, they certainly have to implement draft conscription, something that is political suicide, I would guess the Republican candidates would be cursing and swearing at the Bush administration if this happens. My predictions, which I hope and hope and pray and pray that would not come through is that USA would fire their cruise missiles and precision guided bombs at Iranian targets. The repercussions is something I do not even dare to think of. Latest news was that the navy ships fired warning shots at Iranian fast boats, hope that it continued in this way. "Warning" thats it. If you are driving fast small boats who knows if that is loaded with explosives at the warships definitely they have the right to fire some warning shots which I hope is more than enough to scare away those boats.
Fox Noobs take: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TkVFtDpkyA The most dangerous hawks seem to be the chicken hawks.
I find it quite ironic that allied ships are there to secure the oil, and keep prices low for us. BUt since all this security arrived the price ahs quadrupled. $25 dollars has become $100 dollars. A cynic might say rich people control the armed forces/ etc and are quite happy with the situation. Weapons = dollar sales Oil = price rises Credit= through the roof Property being repossed as it was being used to consolidate and secure the above debt Stock? I am not sure I don't follow it at moment Are we all in a sophisticated game of chess?
It would be difficult to quantify the relationship between the oil price rise with that of allied ships. Oil prices rises is due to increase in demand by China and developing countries, uncertainty in the Middle East region as well as the oil producing regions of Africa such as Nigeria as well as a weakening US dollar among many other factors. I would say that the allied ships prevented the oil prices from escalating more by countering Iran threat to cut off the oil supply to the rest of the world. I think that if the allied ships were to leave, we may even see more uncertainty and even greater rise in the price of oil.
Iran cannot cut off supply, they would be in a state of starvation. Their economy depends almost entirely on the export of oil. Iraq is producing 1/2 of it's capacity, pre-invasion. This is an issue. Also, the Europeans only saw a doubling in prices, Americans 3.5 times. I wouldn't blame Asian demand. The Chinese are building nuclear power plants, they intend to be fairly energy independent. The issues are disruption due to war, and an ever weakening dollar.
We will have to see what happens. It is very dangerous to have the Americans move in and harrass US warships. There is always the possibility that the Iranians may attempt to take a cheap shot.
I just can't see there being a war this time. Just costs too much. I think the most you will see is some private military contracts and CIA. Everyone is just to wise to what goes on now.
Persian Gulf is international waters and the strait of Hormuz is an international shipping lane. The number one mission of the navy is to protect American commerce.
Scary shit right? Thats what happens when you jump the gun and to conclusions before knowing ALL the facts. I bet trigger happy BUSH was ready to declare WAR to Iran on that incident. Gets to show how easily a conflict can spark when you have lunatics in charge of both governments.
He is rallying the Middle Eastern countries against Iran during his trip to the region calling Iran the greatest threat, seemed to echo what he said for Iraq. This aside, I do not believe that will be a full scale war, he cant muster enough manpower and also made up another coalition of the not that willing this time round. But a fireworks display in Iran skies would be bad enough.
Very interesting thread, some of you are really completely off though. I got back from over there less than a month ago on a US Navy ship. We transitted the SoH (straights of hormuz) plently of times while we were over there. Its really funny to read this thread and see how many of you are completely wrong on why we are over there, what the oil situation is, and what happens when we transit the straights. Im not going to go into it all but you should do some research instead of just speaking your ideas about it and saying it like its the truth.