During the late 1970s, the country of Libya and its dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi (recently exterminated), decided to create a 12 mile extension of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Sidra. Qaddafi thought it was a great opportunity to take advantage of a weak and inept US President- Jimmy Carter. Carter was, at the time, dealing with a hostage crisis in Iran, a fuel crisis, and soaring inflation in the US. Qaddafi declared that anyone crossing his so-called” line of death” would meet an immediate and forceful Libyan military response. Unfortunately, at that time, our timid, weak president made the determination that he did not want to press the issue.
Fortunately, the feeble Carter Administration was thrown out of office and Ronald Reagan assumed the office of president in January of 1981. He immediately decided that he would not tolerate any of Qaddafi’s bluster. In August of 1981 he directed a large naval force to take up station off the coast of Libya. Qaddafi made the ill-fated decision to test this new president’s metal.
On the morning of 19 August, 1981, Qaddafi sent multiple strike aircraft into the sky to conduct mock runs and attacks on US aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. They were immediately met by Navy F-14 “Tomcat” fighters. Most of the Libyan Air Force turned
tail and ran. However, two Libyan fighter pilots, made the ill-advised decision to fire an air-to-air missile at one of our F-14s, which fortunately missed. However, our F-14s immediately engaged the Libyan fighter aircraft and quickly flamed them both.
Eight years later, with less than two weeks to go in Reagan's presidency, Qaddafi once again attempted to test Reagan’s steadfastness. The results were the same US Navy- 2, Libyan Air Force- 0!
Recently, Iran is doing a little saber rattling of its own in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's Navy Chief is warning that his country will close the waterway and cut off oil flow out of the gulf. The Strait is only 34 miles wide and approximately 20 to 30% of the world's oil shipments pass through this narrow channel. The threat of shutting the oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz has already driven the price per barrel of oil up over 100 dollars.
Obama has been pretty quick to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. His actions are better associated with his incompetent democrat predecessor Jimmy Carter. I think it's time he took a page from Reagan's book and demonstrated to the Iranians our ability to militarily dominate the Strait of Hormuz. It's time for decisive action! Obama should issue orders to the SecDef, instructing him that the first ship or plane that approaches any of our Naval or merchant shipping with hostile intent is to be obliterated!
Don't
hold your breath. Obama, much like Carter, has spent most of his time
coddling, caving into and bowing down to evil tyrants, dictators and
terrorists. I expect that ambiguous orders will be delivered to our
Navy captains and they will be left to make rapid, life and death decisions with poor direction from their commander-in-chief. This, in the end, may cost American lives.
Submitted By Warlord 6
Thank you for a wonderful article.If we allow the Iranians to intimidate our forces, they will only grow bolder. We need leaders with backbones, not jellyfish.
ReplyDeleteWould they even have the cojones to even try with the Stennis Carrier Group sitting right there? I guess it all depends on the "cojones" of our POTUS...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure Iran has the willingness or ability to actually close international waters and engage in naval warfare with the US or NATO forces. But if they really did, we don't really have to engage them nor should we engage them. Why can't China, India, Europeans and other NATO allied naval forces who might have mutual interests in this issue challenge Iran and call Iran's bluff?
ReplyDeleteYour argument in this article and the last one about Ron Paul is based on a position that is exclusively beneficial to big oil (like Exxon Mobil's) and big military industrial complex interests which is not really the US taxpayer's interests. You seem to conveniently confuse this point in your posts and articles. If you work for big oil or a military contractor, it is better understood why you take the positions you do, but at least disclose it for your readers.
You are equating saber rattling by Iran as a threat to the US requiring that it be met with military force or a show of force that could lead to escalation. The same type of argument was made and duped Americans into invading Iraq in 2002-2003 in a fear mongering tactic by the Bush/Cheney administration feigning national security interest for the benefit of big oil and big military contractors like Halliburton to gain access and exclusive contracts. Exxon in particular seems particularly upset now that the new Iraqi government is rescinding oil field contracts in southern Iraq. Exxon supporters in the government and in blogs of course cite the growing Iranian influence as some new national security threat. What threat?
Iran, Hugo Chavez and the Mexican drug cartels will need a uniformed army, naval force or air force to start dropping bombs on our forces, or cities and start waging war overtly with us before our military should engage civilians.
If you really want to fight people abroad covertly, put the intelligence and military industrial complex resources in touch with the DHS, FBI and CIA and let them fight our purported enemies with the due process of our laws and US Constitution on our side and our representative people in Congress authorizing their actions - not the UCMJ and the DOD being misused by private industry and special interests.
Go back and read Smedley Butler's speeches (who you will recall was one of the most decorated Marines in history) or his book "War is a Racket" from 1933. He seemed to be on to something that we Marine officers today could all benefit by reading again.
If you really want to help your country now, have more kids, adopt some poor kids and encourage your neighbors to have more kids or adopt poor kids and give them a chance to grow up with an education. Start a commercial enterprise that provides your neighbors and community good paying jobs to support their families or only work for companies or leaders that have some same basic ethical values like JJDIDTIEBUCKLE that you learned in boot camp or OCS. Encourage everyone to live within their means. Teach your kids and your neighbor's kids to read and do math at grade level and encourage everyone to learn a trade or go to college. Encourage people to stay away from alcohol, tobacco and drugs and other unhealthy and risky behaviors and habits. Teach kids to choose and prefer healhty foods vs junk and exercise to avoid being obese or become drug addicts. If and when the day does come that some real enemy emerges that can actually put land forces on our shores we would then have able-bodied, smart, strong, young people who can actually know what to do with a rifle and face real threats with a strong body and clear mind. Otherwise if trends continue Americans will be too old, stupid, fat or weak to fight in the future.
Darvis Squirtman was here!
ReplyDeleteWarlord 6 do I know you from HSL-51 in Atsugi, Japan?
ReplyDelete