Iran playing games

[SlowwHand]

Ditto.

[LordShiva]

SLOWW!!

[Patroklos]

The Straits are really narrow. I would think that even Iran would have the missiles to block it. Maybe Patroklos would have a better idea.

The straights are narrow, and are bristling with missiles, but even with this I wouldn't bet on Iran being able to close the straits for anything more than a couple days, and that is just because we probably wouldn't have the balls to take even the slightest risk of losing a ship these days. We know where all those missile sites are, so a few days of laser guided bombs and cruise missiles and your good to go. They haven't had a successful C802/3 (the bulk of their costal arsenal) in the better part of a decade, and they try every year.

As far as their Navy, most would be destroyed peirside in hours, or soon after. If their Kilos got underway in time they could cause some trouble, but what is one or two tankers relative to shutting down the world economy? Kilos are ify though, my ship alone found two of them steaming home on the surface WAY out in the Gulf of Oman, presumably due to mechanical problems. They had some Houdongs run out to escort it eventually but we were there hours before (on accident both times, a surfaces submarine looks like any old sufficed contact on the top until the sun comes up) and could have taken it out with 50 cals let alone torps/missiles/5 inch.

The IRCGN has a lot of small speed boats/jet skis armed to various degrees to try overwhelm a transiting vessel, but there are a few basic tactics to screw that up, and with my ship having 8 .50s, 4 M60s, 2 automatic 40mm grenade launchers, 2 25mm chain guns, and various other small arms the chances of them getting to us is slight. And of course, we now have KEAT rounds for the 5 inch, and these are nasty for small boats.

So basically the only chance Iran has of taking out a warship is if they happen to have one transiting the straights when war breaks out, and they suprise it at that. I bet the oil companies would stop their tankers from transiting no matter how much damage we inflict on their coastal missile batteries for insurance reasons.

[Dinner]

My understanding is the Iranians have built up a large store of civilian looking speed boats which can quickly be turned into suicide bomb boats.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I would also point out that some people, to use Mobius as an example, have expressed no outrage.
If the British had taken 15 Iranians, well...the nerve. The audacity. The brutality of it all.
Yet nothing, really, on this.

Well for a start I'm not some knee-jerk hot head like you, so I won't be calling for dumb ideas like blowing up Iran's refinery or other totally stupid things like that...

Of course it's an outrage, but that is so obvious it's not really worth mentioning. Ultimately we had 15 people taken who are unharmed - at the moment it is really no big deal...

What becomes a big deal is how we deal with things from now, how we can save face because let's face it it is pretty embarrassing for the UK getting our men taken like that, how we can get our people back safely and unharmed and how we can make the Iranians continue to look like total arses to the rest of the world...

The problem is, too many politicians are pussies with chips on their shoulders, like the UN who still remember we attacked Iraq in the first place against world opinion but are just generally spineless as well - I guess a lot of them are privately thinking serves us right!

Anyway, force is NOT AN OPTION!

Basically they took these guys mainly because of the sanctions, I think. So we just push more punitive sanctions through, targetting luxuries for instance to piss the public off because their is a huge groundswell of opposition already to Ahmedinejad in Iran - he survives through winning confrontations...

Otherwise I blame the Italians last week for doing that lilly-livered hostage swap with the Taliban in Afghanistan for giving the Iranians ideas about their own men detained by the US.

Problem with sanctions is the whole bureacratic red tape of the UN, I'm sure getting more would take ages - so we tell the UN if they don't rush more sanctions through we will blockade Iran's oil export capabilities within a week or so if things don't change.

What annoys me is this bull**** about us having to prove we weren't in Iranian waters when we should be expressing outrage of having Iranians violating Iraqi waters! We sound weak from the get go - "Please sir, can we have our men back after you took them by invading another country..."

What also annoys me is why we let them do this in the 1st place, given the violations they are apparently making on an ongoing basis - the border should be properly demarcated by us and anyone coming across is sent packing or apprehended. The area should certainly be properly monitored, to avoid nasty surprises like this, especially after apparently being warned!

Really I'm just hoping that the Iranians are continuing in their patrol boat modernisation programme by nicking ours, and using the kidnapping as a smokescreen...

Anyway, I'm pretty happy for this situation to continue for the time being as it is making Ahmedinejad look even more of a ****er in the eyes of the world than he already is.

[curtsibling]

I have a feeling that those sailors where probably SBS or something similar.
And I guess that our people discovered something iffy aboard that Iranian ship.
........As in imported-nuclear-components-iffy...

That is another reason these crooks kidnapped UK personnel.

My pride as a Britisher is stung at the lack of action from Blair.
Although I assume things are happening in the background.

I am glad to have the USA backing our nation on this one.

Soon the US/UK might be 'redocorating' Tehran.

[MOBIUS]

If they were SBS, they would have had back up and not allowed themselves to get caught without a fight.

Also, IIRC the dhow is still exactly where it was - in Iraqi waters!

Much more of Blair acting like a **** like this and I will seriously consider elevating him above Thatcher on my Prime ministerial ****list!

[curtsibling]

Despite the unacceptable language, I agree that Blair is a big commie girl's blouse.

[MOBIUS]

Nothing commie about that bastard!

Besides if he is on a par with Thatcher, I feel I have no alternative than to use the 'C' word...

[curtsibling]

Blair's social meddling and big brother antics are as commie as can be.

Labour are like a gang of arrogant stalinist gangsters.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Blair's social meddling and big brother antics are as commie as can be.

Labour are like a gang of arrogant stalinist gangsters.

Oh dear.

Having been speaking to a (former) Czech dissident only on Wednesday, let me assure you that we aren't quite yet at the Warsaw Pact stage of domestic repression in this country.


This begins to sound just like all those misguided people yelling 'Fascists!' at Thatcher and her cronies in the 80s.

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I have a feeling that those sailors where probably SBS or something similar.
And I guess that our people discovered something iffy aboard that Iranian ship.
........As in imported-nuclear-components-iffy...

That is another reason these crooks kidnapped UK personnel.

My pride as a Britisher is stung at the lack of action from Blair.
Although I assume things are happening in the background.

I am glad to have the USA backing our nation on this one.

Soon the US/UK might be 'redocorating' Tehran.

Yeah special forces go round with ordinary women sailors

[SlowwHand]

Curt, that remark about Blair was pretty off-the-wall.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
If they were SBS, they would have had back up and not allowed themselves to get caught without a fight.

Also, IIRC the dhow is still exactly where it was - in Iraqi waters!

Much more of Blair acting like a **** like this and I will seriously consider elevating him above Thatcher on my Prime ministerial ****list!

While you may feel it's justified, there is a language filter for a reason. The rules are very clear on attempts to get around it. Please don't try again. Indeed, as my mother always used to say, resorting to swearing just shows you don't have a wide enough vocabulary to insult someone properly. There is never a need to use swear words.

[SlowwHand]

Can I start a thread on whether Mobius should be banned?
Please?