Iranian Boats (possibly with GWB at the helm) Harass US Warship

[ATB]

to Unbreakable

Within 200 yards? What's the range of engagement? I'd think that 200 yards was pretty close to being lights out time for those boats.

[unbreakable]

I read this earlier.

Any bets on what percentage of this story turns out to be untrue?

[CSL]

Any bets on what percentage of this story turns out to be untrue?

None of it probably.

[unbreakable]

Any bets on what percentage of this story turns out to be untrue?

None of it probably.

We can revisit the issue when more details come out.  I'm willing to bet it's like 99% of all the other things we read in the mainstream news.

[unbreakable]

Well, looks like there has been a response, albeit (of course) not shown at the start of the article:

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini played down the incident, suggesting it was an issue of misidentification. He did not comment on the U.S. claims of the Iranian boats’ actions.

“That is something normal that takes place every now and then for each party, and it (the problem) is settled after identification of the two parties,” he told the state news agency IRNA.

The incident was “similar to past ones” that were resolved “once the two sides recognized each other,” he said.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard official also described the incident as nothing unusual.

“No unusual confrontation has taken place between the Guard’s patrol vessels and U.S. ships,” state-run television quoted the official as saying. The official was speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The Guard official said the Guard’s vessels were conducting normal patrols in the Strait of Hormuz when they saw three U.S. ships enter the waters of the region.

“The Guard’s navy vessels, as usual, asked the ships to identify themselves and they did so and continued their path,” the TV quoted the official as saying.

And then, of course, the article goes on to parrot already discredited WH talking points.


So... normal occurance, story sexed up.  Business as usual, in other words.  FEAR!!!  FEAR!!!  YOU MUST FEAR!!!

[ATB]

You believe Iranian state run TV more so than liberal mouthpiece CNN?

[Daehawk]

Its only a mis quote unless its from Fox News

[unbreakable]

You believe Iranian state run TV more so than liberal mouthpiece CNN?

Since CNN has only been reprinting what the Pentagon says for the past 6 years... yeah.

LOL... "liberal mouthpiece".  OMG TEH LIBR00L MEDIAZ!!!!11

[Lee]

You believe Iranian state run TV more so than liberal mouthpiece CNN?

The only people who say that don't watch CNN. Just because everything isn't pro-Bush and they don't show a bunch of pieces saying how great he is. They also don't fill up their time slots with very biased commentary like some other station does (Larry King is hardly political 95% of the time). I would say CNN leans to the left, but they are hardly a mouth piece for the left. Now Fox is 100% right and their shows reflect it. They call it the no spin zone, but it is the complete opposite. And don't get me wrong, I don't like CNN, but if I want news without the commentary they are who I go to.

On a related note I was listening to Rush on phoner call in Friday. A major topic was that people were mad because Rush wouldn't go over each candidate and say whether they were conservative or not. To Rush's credit he refused to do so, but people were upset with him for it. It's like they wanted to be told how to think.

[ATB]

Video released of the incident check the new sites. It's hardly thrilling, but I do believe you can see GWB waterskiing off the back of one of the boats.

[unbreakable]

Told ya.  And Cheney was driving, too.

[Zinfan]

Video released of the incident check the new sites. It's hardly thrilling, but I do believe you can see GWB waterskiing off the back of one of the boats.

I'm betting every Navy ship is at general quarters when passing though the Straights of Hormuz and what you don't see on the video is the guns tracking those boats and the repair parties/boarding parties and other stations all manned up.  I'd say those Iranians were less than a minute before "hardly thrilling" became "Gulf of Tonkin thrilling".  In fact I was amazed to see those boats near the wake of the ships, hardly necessary to get that close to "identify" a U.S. warship but plenty close enough to get blown out of the water.

I didn't see any weapons on the Iranian boats, I wonder what they would have done if they needed to turn back the unidentified ships that they went to check out?  I'd say they were bringing a scimitar (curved for better slashing!) to a gun fight.

[ATB]

I'd say they were bringing a scimitar (curved for better slashing!) to a gun fight.

Or they loaded them with explosives a la the Cole.

[Blackadar]

You believe Iranian state run TV more so than liberal mouthpiece CNN?

*snicker*

*giggle*

*guffaw*

"reality has a well-known liberal bias"

[Zinfan]

Any bets on what percentage of this story turns out to be untrue?

None of it probably.

We can revisit the issue when more details come out.  I'm willing to bet it's like 99% of all the other things we read in the mainstream news.

Well have you watched the video?  Story untrue?  Hoax?  Normal for Iranian gun(?)boats to claim that they are going to explode another ship in international waters?  U.S. Navy dubbing sinister voice over the video tape?

[Zinfan]

I'd say they were bringing a scimitar (curved for better slashing!) to a gun fight.

Or they loaded them with explosives a la the Cole.

True if they were intending to attack vessels but the Iranian government says they were just identifying ships, again how would they turn back a ship if they had no guns but were loaded with explosives?  Whatever they were doing they were ill equipped to do whatever the Iranians said they were supposed to be doing.

[msduncan]

MOD EDIT- Msduncan, that was completely inappropriate.

[Calvin]

At this point I'm wondering if unbreakable is this guy:



At the very least he probably thinks of him as a great patriot.

Oh you've come back out of hiding after your smackdown in the other thread to call Unbreakable a terrorist. Super. Glad you stopped by.

[msduncan]

At this point I'm wondering if unbreakable is this guy:



At the very least he probably thinks of him as a great patriot.

Oh you've come back out of hiding after your smackdown in the other thread to call Unbreakable a terrorist. Super. Glad you stopped by.

No.  I can't get to this forum from work and mostly visit during the weekend.    If you think I got a smackdown, you are fooling yourself.   I'm working my way down the forum posts as we speak.

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

[unbreakable]

Well have you watched the video?  Story untrue?  Hoax?  Normal for Iranian gun(?)boats to claim that they are going to explode another ship in international waters?  U.S. Navy dubbing sinister voice over the video tape?

No, I don't need to watch the video, because what can it possibly prove?

How do you know what was said?  Do you speak Persian?

[unbreakable]

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

I never said I was tolerant.  If someone acts like an asshole, why shouldn't I call them an asshole?

Being "tolerant" is a condesention.  It means you are "putting up with them".  I try to be polite and respect people who deserve respect.

You far righters expect liberals to be pussies you can walk all over, then get all pissed off when you don't get an easy fight.  Sorry man, liberals aren't the damn dirty hippies who weigh 50 pounds and eat granola all day.  Your belief in an inaccurate stereotype is your own problem.

[Lee]

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

Rush
O'Reilly
Hannity
Glen Beck
Cavuto
Liddy
Keys
Etc.

Yeah, the liberals are the intolerant obnoxious ones.

[TC Weidner]

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

the left is tolerant of life styles and choices, and believe everyone should be free to live as they please as long as they hurt no one doing so.  Live nd let live,  do unto others  stuff like that. Its called respecting the constitution.

 Tolerance of ignorance and so forth is another case entirely.

[msduncan]

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

the left is tolerant of life styles and choices, and believe everyone should be free to live as they please as long as they hurt no one doing so.  Live nd let live,  do unto others  stuff like that. Its called respecting the constitution.

 Tolerance of ignorance and so forth is another case entirely.

Allow me to translate:

"What we believe is fact.    Anyone that doesn't believe it is ignorant.    We are not tolerant of ignorance."

                                                                               -- signed sincerely:   liberals with superiority complexes

[Lee]

What we believe is fact.    Anyone that doesn't believe it is ignorant.    We are not tolerant of ignorance.

You should have put a smilie after that, otherwise you look slightly intolerant and irrational yourself.

[msduncan]

What we believe is fact.    Anyone that doesn't believe it is ignorant.    We are not tolerant of ignorance.

You should have put a smilie after that, otherwise you look slightly intolerant and irrational yourself.

There.  I fixed it.

[Mr. Fed]

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

So you wander into the thread, say that unbreakable is a terrorist or terrorist lover, and then at the merest rebuke start sniveling like Hillary five points down in a poll?

Wow, you really are the King of dish it out but can't take it.

[msduncan]

Question:   if the left is supposed to be so tolerant, why in the **** are you guys the most obnoxious and intolerant of anyone I know?

So you wander into the thread, say that unbreakable is a terrorist or terrorist lover, and then at the merest rebuke start sniveling like Hillary five points down in a poll?

Wow, you really are the King of dish it out but can't take it.

It's called giving it to him as he's been dishing it in more threads than I can count.      I posted the above response when Calvin decided to pretend I got some sort of imaginary smack down in the other thread over the 2nd Amendment.

But I like the generally non-political atmosphere here (more focused on games than the other popular forum we both know well), so I'll bow out in the interest of helping this sink to the floor of the forum.   

[unbreakable]

It's called giving it to him as he's been dishing it in more threads than I can count.      I posted the above response when Calvin decided to pretend I got some sort of imaginary smack down in the other thread over the 2nd Amendment.

But I like the generally non-political atmosphere here (more focused on games than the other popular forum we both know well), so I'll bow out in the interest of helping this sink to the floor of the forum.   

I wasn't aware it was your job to "give it to me".

But it's nice to see you think it's ok to call a specific forum member a terrorist, and say all liberals everywhere have a superiority complex.  Glad such a class act as yourself stops by now and again.

[Kevin Grey]

If msduncan wants to bow out of this thread, please let him and cease replying to his comments. 

[Zinfan]

Well have you watched the video?  Story untrue?  Hoax?  Normal for Iranian gun(?)boats to claim that they are going to explode another ship in international waters?  U.S. Navy dubbing sinister voice over the video tape?

No, I don't need to watch the video, because what can it possibly prove?

How do you know what was said?  Do you speak Persian?

I guess I do speak Persian since I understood what was said, it turns out Persian is just like English!  I suppose watching the video might give more insight into what happened but I can see that it would in no way change your opinion of what happened or who was telling the truth.

[unbreakable]

I guess I do speak Persian since I understood what was said, it turns out Persian is just like English!  I suppose watching the video might give more insight into what happened but I can see that it would in no way change your opinion of what happened or who was telling the truth.

Wow, I didn't know Iranians would have gone through an entire "threat exchange" in English.  You heard everything which was said, and it was all in English?


To me, this entire thing seems like a poor man's "Terror Alert Level".  Nobody could stir up irrational fear among right-wingers like Karl Rove.  I'm sure he is missed.

[ATB]

I guess I do speak Persian since I understood what was said, it turns out Persian is just like English!  I suppose watching the video might give more insight into what happened but I can see that it would in no way change your opinion of what happened or who was telling the truth.

Wow, I didn't know Iranians would have gone through an entire "threat exchange" in English.  You heard everything which was said, and it was all in English?


To me, this entire thing seems like a poor man's "Terror Alert Level".  Nobody could stir up irrational fear among right-wingers like Karl Rove.  I'm sure he is missed.

The vid is from the US Navy. Because we don't have a corroborating companion piece from Iran it's falsified propaganda?

[ATB]

You far righters expect liberals to be sissies you can walk all over, then get all pissed off when you don't get an easy fight.  Sorry man, liberals aren't the damn dirty hippies who weigh 50 pounds and eat granola all day. 

Your false sense of persecution may underscore why you think everything is a conspiracy generated by the 'Far Right'.

Your belief in an inaccurate stereotype is your own problem.

Irony meet Unbreakable. Unbreakable, Irony.

[ATB]

MOD EDIT- Msduncan, that was completely inappropriate.

Was it a picture of a 5 year old boy? If so, that would have been a hilariously ironic and delicious unification of the threads at which we would all have a good laugh!

[unbreakable]

To me, this entire thing seems like a poor man's "Terror Alert Level".  Nobody could stir up irrational fear among right-wingers like Karl Rove.  I'm sure he is missed.

The vid is from the US Navy. Because we don't have a corroborating companion piece from Iran it's falsified propaganda?

Well it's kind of hard to buy your "he-said-she-said" argument when we are only hearing the he-said side of it.


BTW, last night I was thinking how much I appreciate ATB after having heard from msduncan.  But this morning... that thought seems kind of silly.

You far righters expect liberals to be sissies you can walk all over, then get all pissed off when you don't get an easy fight.  Sorry man, liberals aren't the damn dirty hippies who weigh 50 pounds and eat granola all day. 

Your false sense of persecution may underscore why you think everything is a conspiracy generated by the 'Far Right'.

As opposed to your conspiracy theory that there's a Clinton around every corner, and a terrrrrrerrrrrist under every bed, and that Vince Foster was taken out by a vast liberal conspiracy.

I don't have to go with conspiracy theories (although they have been engaged in a lot of criminal conspiracies).  I just always expect the worst out of Republican leaders, and they have always been very cooperative in proving me right.

[ATB]

BTW, last night I was thinking how much I appreciate ATB after having heard from msduncan.  But this morning... that thought seems kind of silly.

 

[unbreakable]

BTW, last night I was thinking how much I appreciate ATB after having heard from msduncan.  But this morning... that thought seems kind of silly.

 

Well, maybe that's a little unfair.  At least you never called me a terrorist.

[ATB]

BTW, last night I was thinking how much I appreciate ATB after having heard from msduncan.  But this morning... that thought seems kind of silly.

 

Well, maybe that's a little unfair.  At least you never called me a terrorist.

Don't think I haven't thought about it...

[Purge]

Told ya.  And Cheney was driving, too.

Only if he was shooting one of his friends in the face and collecting apologies...