a reminder of what? that bush still sucks?

Did that guy actually say that "the Iranians are hoping to die"?

Wow, where to begin with that one?

It also speaks to the failure of adequate enforcement of the Smith-Mundt Act.
When you propagandize for the government for so long then lies and opinion and news are served up indescriminately and haphazardly.

Beef up the Smith-Mundt Act and enforce it so we can keep media out of our foreign policy.

I think the additional carrier is a sign that the White House is rattled - Iraq's a disaster Afganistain is worse so all they can think of is upping the ante - whynot attack Iran? They figure it'll be flags parades and carrier landings again at least to start with.

as per blowing up those little boats - Scott should be careful what he wishes for - a war game done by the Pentagon some years back resulted in those little boats (and other Iranian forces) sinking one carrier and several other surface ships including some oil tankers thereby creating utter chaos before the people running the game decided to change the rules. (This has a long history in wargaming - before the attack on Midway the Japanaese war game showed that their carrier group could get caught flatfoofted by the U.S. forces - so they changed the result).

I just hope the folks in the gulf are not as batshit crazy/evil/stupid as these folks seem.

It is incredibly dishonest for him to suggest that regular army forces in Iran (or any country for that matter) would participate in suicide bombings by boat (or other methods of delivery) in the same way religious extremists do. That General is a dangerous, unprincipled man.

We might also get a reminder from Iran that they have a large army and they are just across the border from where our soldiers are right now. Our soldiers who are worn out and Iran's soldiers are fresh and there are many of them.

Is this man a retired general? If he is perhaps he's one of the pentagon's message carriers.

Crooks and Liars watches Fox so we won't have to.

I don't believe there was any conflation to the Cole attack at all based on what I see. There's plenty of stuff for which to hate FOX, but this isn't one of them. Must be a slow news day to post crap like this.

These stupid warmongerers will not be happy until they have gotten everyone of our servicepeople killed.

Why did Barack Obama decide to appear on FOXnews and legitimize their bs? I was very disappointed that he was willing to work with them. I know he has said he will work with Republicans and hire them as part of his cabinet, but I just hope he doesn't compromise on his values.

#17: But we’ve had at least two carriers in the Persian Gulf for a year now! Why is Gates making it sound as if we only had one there and we’re stepping up our presence?

It’s not just that Fox can’t remember who attacked the USS Cole [hint: AQ], they don’t even bother to check how many carriers we have in the Gulf.

I can't listen to the video. But I should've said it's Faux News that's reporting that the US is sending a 2nd carrier, as if that's news. When we've had two carriers in the Gulf for a year now, and Gates is probably just rotating them.

Fox is unbelievable, even for them.

How much is all this childish saber-rattling costing us taxpayers? It takes a lot of fuel to move an aircraft carrier. Are we to just put this on the Republicans' ever-expanding tab?

Duros Hussein62 @ 9:

They're just aching for a Tonkin Gulf moment.

Don't even joke about it! I predict it WILL happen.
We all know how easy it would be to fake a speedboat attack, or more likely infiltrate a group of radicals, provide munitions, and instigate an attack.
I just hope the sheeple are not stupid enough to believe it this time.

YourMom @ 28:

Duros Hussein62 @ 9:

They're just aching for a Tonkin Gulf moment.

Don't even joke about it! I predict it WILL happen.
We all know how easy it would be to fake a speedboat attack, or more likely infiltrate a group of radicals, provide munitions, and instigate an attack.
I just hope the sheeple are not stupid enough to believe it this time.

All we need is for a mine to blow up near a ship. That shouldn't be too hard to arrange.

We just sent another carrier group to the Middle East. We know why oil prices are rising now. Tell the chimp to stop sabre rattling and help american consumers and not oil companies.

Weaseldog @ 27:

Gloria @ 19:

Personally, I suspect that the Bush Administration is going to attack Iran before November. It will then declare Martial Law and cancel the election. Third term for Bush. (And his only chance to redeem himself for history or to write it himself.)

I agree he'll hit Iran, but I'm not so sure he'll declare martial law and remain president.

A strike on Iran will further increase the price of oil and gasoline. Bush's royalty checks will increase in value and he can go celebrate on cocaine and whiskey.

He can leave that for John McSame.

I've only got one straw left in my hand.
If that happens, it's on like Donkey Kong.

TomR @ 18:

I don't believe there was any conflation to the Cole attack at all based on what I see. There's plenty of stuff for which to hate FOX, but this isn't one of them. Must be a slow news day to post crap like this.

Hey TomR, does the "R" stand for Republican?

Apologies if it's been mentioned already, but the US media has been stunningly silent on a summit of Foreign Ministers that convenes in London on May 2 to discuss the Iranian problem. Not to blogwhore in advance, but that is the lead item in our roundup tonight.

The question, "why don’t we just blow those little speed boats out of the water”?

reminds all the knuckle draggers out there that 'murika is #1 in morality and justice. I mean, how else do you think Fixed Noise is going to nurture their base's delusion that they are superior to every other human being simply because they're American?

He should have just said: "FTW, we can do whatever we please...USA! USA! USA! USA!"

It meshes nicely with the claim "we did Japan a favor when we dropped the H bomb on them".

Ex-Canuck @ 36:

TomR @ 18:

I don't believe there was any conflation to the Cole attack at all based on what I see. There's plenty of stuff for which to hate FOX, but this isn't one of them. Must be a slow news day to post crap like this.

Hey TomR, does the "R" stand for Republican?

It's stands for "Responsible" compared to the many other comments I see here. If "small boats" becomes the ironclad standard for linking Iran to the Cole by C&L's standards, then any remote commonality could be applied. OMG, they were on TV talking about boats today, and TV was around during the Cole attack!!1one

If you can point me to anything in the Fox news story that is suggestive of the Iranians involved in the Cole attack, I'll gladly recant my position. I'd rather be called a Republican and know that I took a neutral view on the story than to be an ideologue who fancies himself a saint.

Scott Ritter said on Democracy Now! that an attack on Iran is imminent. I believe these are good clues when FOX ratchets up the propoganda, to say nothing of Petraeus taking Fallon's post

Ash”Hussy”Williams @ 34, I hear you there!! Count me in the game too!

I'm pretty sure the little boats he's talking about are the same one's that "buzzed" the carrier group not too long ago. Remember the one's that said "we will blow up your boat" but ever did? I don't think that comment was a reference to the USS Cole.

If you removed all the small boats from the Persian Gulf, you'd have no line boats to assist in tying up ships.

Also, there are huge shoals of "go-fast" boats running east and west across the Gulf, smuggling booze, cigarettes and workers to/from Iran and the Emirates which have NOTHING to do with "terra-ism," just some poor schmucks trying to hustle a living.

Saying stupid shit like this idiot did in a public forum, especially TV, makes me wonder what ELSE my government fucked me on, besides the financial burden of his education and curation from Academy to Grave...

MEMO TO TV:

If you want to talk about stuff like this, you need to have some sonofabitch on camera who has actually sailed aboard ships in the Persian Gulf since 2002.

There's a nice Selection of such individuals, since Der Shrub and the clowns at the Five Sided Palace of Fallacy have fucked the US-flag Merchant Marine in the ears. Lots of Academy-educated ship masters and officers sitting around with their thumbs up their asses, out of work or sailing a desk at a Stevedoring company, would be DELIGHTED to share their Gulf experiences and insights with you.

List upon request. I are one of 'em.

Just from reading the title, and nothing else: Sure. Why not?

Everything bad on this planet comes from the axis-of-evil (& friends): everything good on this planet comes from the USA. Think no further. Wave flag here.

From the wikipedia entry for Strait of Hormuz:

To traverse the Strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

I'm sure part of that convention allows the country whose territorial waters is being used for shipping to get identification from every boat passing through. First they check on the radio, and then if, as is apparent with the recent flap, the U.S. ship refuses to identify themselves, they approach close enough to do a visual identification. Which apparently is *really* scary. Even scarier than what goes through the minds of Iranian civilians flying over the strait less than 10 years after a U.S. warship shot down Iran Air 655.

But don't be so hard on Jon Scott. The republican party is going down the tubes and with it Fox News' ratings. Let's celebrate the courage it takes for him to wake up every morning and continue his existence both without meaning to his life and without the financial and job security he had when Bush wasn't the most hated president ever.

Someone should send him flowers. Seriously.

So we're just trying to "remind" Iran that the US has become a rapacious aggressor nation? Somehow, I think they already know that.

Frybread @ 49:

pissed off patricia @ 7:

Couldn't we have simply sent an email saying, We want to remind you Iran, that we might just be going to attack you one day soon.

That would have been a hell of a lot cheaper than sending an aircraft carrier to dock in their backyard.

A lot of people in our country have become, or maybe always were, so cold hearted. They seem to think we are justified in blowing up countries and killing people where ever and when ever we want. It's all about us they seem to think. No wonder the attitude of the world toward the US is most likely the worst it's ever been.

Many Americans feel naked aggression is OK as long as the victims are non-white and non-Christian.

And most especially: foreign.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/30/business/main4057490.shtml

Now that they have gotten rid of the Admiral (Central Command in the whole region) that was standing in the way of an attack on Iran, the way is open to expand the war into Iran. After the attack on Iran we will have a coup in Iraq. The armed sunni almost outnumber the Iraqi army already. And if anyone has been paying attention, we hate the shiites. A sunni minority in power would have to rely on the US to keep them in power and protect them. In turn we could demand anything we wanted. Such as more than 80% of Iraqi oil (hand it over to US and British oil companies), and permanent military bases in Iraq so as to apply presure or attack Iran and Syria, etc. It's all coming and a democrat in power will not change it.

Spun @ 61:

General_Rennenkampf @ 55:

Chopvac @ 53:

Meanwhile, nobody talks about the US deliberately blowing up an Iranian airline, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. Or of Israel's unprovoked and murderous attack on the USS Liberty, come to think of it....

No, just as we don't tend to reflect on Israel doing as much to destroy the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East, the ones where the Faith was born, as the Islamist Palestineans do.

Wait.....What are you saying? The Muslim Palestinians are destroying Christian Palestinians?

I was attending a funeral in Bethlehem two years ago for a Christian boy who was shot and killed by Israeli troops. As they walked through the streets, both Muslims and Christians chanted "in the name of the Bible and the Koran this is a crime against us all" (or something to that effect. It was in Arabic). Not only are both Christian and Muslim Palestinians united against the occupation, they both suffer equally.

Really? It hasn't been my experience from history that poverty-stricken groups, particularly in regions like the West Bank and Gaza tend to get along that well. I didn't realize it had gotten bad enough to unite Muslims and Christians. I was expecting the situation to resemble Lebanon-style relationships.

My hat's off to you, sir, you've taught me something.

And yes, I know that Israel is decimating Christian communities along with the Muslims. The Jews and Christians get along about as lovey-dovey as Christians and Muslims....

Well, Iran is now on the state departments list for supporting terror, big surprise. Bigger surprise, so is Venezuela. Yes, Venezuela, and Cuba. It's funny, because the US protects the WORSE Cuban terrorists that live in Florida, but they're OUR terrorists, so they're freedom fighters or something.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/30/terror.report/

"Venezuela's associations with terror states, Iran's meddling in Iraq "

So Venezuela and not the US associates with "terror states" (Cuba, who is on the list because of the support they give to the FARC, our support of the groups who Human Rights and Amnesty International say commit 80% of the crime in Colombia don't count I guess), while Iran is "meddling" in a country that it shares a border with, one that we invaded...as Chomsky has said, "We own the world"

Hulk @ 23:

We are #1. We are something special. We can supply OBL with weapons and support to repulse the occupying Soviets...but damn to hell any nation, Iran, Syria, Russia, etc. should they decide to back the fighters trying to rid Iraq of their "occupiers".

How would we react if some nation....Russia, China, N. Koreans...if they placed their carriers off OUR coast to provoke us?? God, we are #1. We can do it...but God help them if THEY do.

What makes us just so f*cking special? Why are we this "superman", "all-righteous country" that can invoke their will on everyone else in the world??

You've answered your own question - In the beliefs of most Americans, God favors our nation above all others. You see it in the "God Bless America" slogans, our money, our sporting events, and our festivals. At every opportunity, Americans are told that God is on our side. When God is supporting your decisions, you can do no wrong. That's why we are what we are.

Of course, I'm an atheist, so God doesn't love me, and I'll go to hell when I die. Along with all the other people the Christian loving god doesn't like, such as gays, women, blacks, jews, muslims, asians, hispanics, and liberals.

tim haakes bio...
http://www.dami.army.pentagon.mil/pub/dami-fl/mg-haake-bio.pdf

He was a JAG, a Lawyer, he passed the Q course as an enlisted guy, but his focus has been in other areas of "professional influence"

Why he has Halo wings I can only guess he piked those up while he was at socom, getting some kind of guest slot to the school from people he knows taking a slot from someone who needs it.

Hackworth would call this guy a perfumed prince.

and a representative of the military iindustrial complex.

read the bio and figure it out for yourself.

especially you military folks.

"escalation" and "warmongering" my ass. The Truman is doing its standard turnover and coming back. Since they left in November the plan was always turn over in May, be back in June. Then Enterprise came back faster and we didn't have two in the gulf at the same time when she turned over to the Truman because the Truman had some problems that held it up (e.g. the engine work they flew engineers out to fix in Jebel Ali). This is no surprise, it is no change in policy, this has literally been planned since last June.

I come here to cut through the bullshit I get from Faux news and the others. How about checking the facts before shooting off? The real news story is the lame duck White House trying to conduct gunboat diplomacy with a window of days because they don't have the clout to do anything more.

thanks Dan, to the point.

well, all it takes is one terrorist or renegade group to attack the ship. then the motions are "how can't we go to war?". the boat is bait.

the gulf is the most damned stupid place on earth to put our carriers. it's hemmed in. has nasty choke points at its exit. And Iran has some very, very, sophisticated *Russian* anti-ship SS-N-22 Sunburn cruise missiles that our aegis anti missile systems and carriers have no defense against.
in short, it's begging for 3 dead carriers.

anti-ship SS-N-22 Sunburn cruise missiles

TomR @ 18:

I don't believe there was any conflation to the Cole attack at all based on what I see. There's plenty of stuff for which to hate FOX, but this isn't one of them. Must be a slow news day to post crap like this.

There was clear conflation, the question was about Iranian speed boats and he went on to talk about how "they" (many people probably not realizing he;s now talking about al qeada, not the IRGC) attacked the uss cole, take into account your average fox news viewer can't locate the US on a map, let alone distinguish between al qeada and the IRGC's, many of them probably now believe Iran attacked the USS cole.

I wish one person would remind Fox viewers that the U.S. Navy shot down a commercial airliner killing 300 Iranian civilians because of hyped up rhettoric like this. Reagan refused to even apologize.

Are you guys reading too much into this? Wasn't there another incident about speedboats around US Navy ships in the gulf a year or so ago?