The US Navy called Iranian probes “unsafe and unprofessional”
That is today’s Obama/Ash Carter/Ray Mabus Navy…indeed, that’s our nation’s entire ‘modern’ armed forces structure and philosophy.
“Unprofessional” is when a president takes “selfies” acting out like one of the Blues Brothers, or when the leader of the world’s most powerful democratic nation does interviews with internet “personalities” who frolic in a bathtub and munch down cereal from their own bath water. “Unprofessional” is when the Commander-in-Chief requires one of our elite warriors to hold an umbrella so that he doesn’t get wet in a light rain.
Threatening our warships and taunting our military are not “unprofessional”…they are warlike gestures and must be met with appropriate response…like providing adequate warning and when ignored blow the belligerents out of the water.
From today’s Navy Times:
Four Iranian boats approached a U.S. destroyer in the Persian Gulf in a dangerous stunt Tuesday, according to a Navy official.
The small Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy craft drove within within 300 yards of the destroyer Nitze, deployed with the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, near the Strait of Hormuz, said the official who was not authorized to speak on the record about the incident.
The Navy is calling the incident “unsafe and unprofessional,” he said.
The destroyer tried various methods to communicate with the incoming four boats, he added. Radio calls, the ship’s whistle, firing flares — all to no response.
The boats ultimately came within a few hundred yards of Nitze before turning around, the official said. The U.S. Navy said the incident occurred in international waters.
On Thursday, the Iranian defense minister said Iran’s naval forces will warn or confront any foreign ship entering the country’s territorial waters, The Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Gen. Hosein Dehghan as saying that “if any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it’s an invasion, we confront.” He added that Iranian boats patrol to monitor traffic and foreign vessels in its territorial waters.
U.S. Navy video of the incident obtained by The Associated Press shows American sailors on the Nitze firing flares and sounding the warship’s horn as the Iranian boats approached.
Earlier, Adm. John Richardson said the incident involving the Nitze reflects the greater competition the U.S. is facing at sea and underscores the naval tensions with Tehran.
It’s the latest in a string of Iranian warships taunting and testing U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf. Late last year, Revolutionary Guard point fired rockets near the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group from about 1,000 meters away.
In photos released last month, boats approached two Navy ships — one of which was carrying U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Joe Votel, the Wall Street Journal reported. The IRGCN also arrested 10 riverine sailors at gunpoint after they strayed into Iranian waters and held them for day, an incident which Iranian officials proclaimed as a victory.
DLH
