Iran Planning to Send Ships Near U.S. Waters

[Oneironaut Zero]

Iran planning to send ships near U.S. waters - CNN.com THIS should be interesting.

[ooflendoodle]

I smell war.

[HeavySleeper]

[cmind]

Interesting how the CNN story shows a picture of boats, as if it was taken from a harbour on Long Island or something, to give the impression that they're already here. That's some pretty clever brainwashing. It sounds like the US government is stepping up the propaganda machine to go to war with Iran. I doubt the sovereign nation of Iran has made any aggressive actions whatsoever.

[Descensus]

Eagerly awaiting some real life Call of Duty action.

[Ne-yo]

Woah! they have ships?

[Xei]

A non-story I imagine. This is just rhetoric to please the Iranians; nothing illegal or particularly agressive or abnormal is being suggested. Like cmind says, the funny thing is CNN portraying such a story with footage of Iranian boats mobilising and firing missiles.

[Invader]

U.S. military is hiring translators for Farsi out the ass right now, doesn't take a genius to see who we're going to spread our democracy and freedom to next.

[Ne-yo]

Various U.S. Government intelligence agencies, military's and private secs. have been looking for people who speaks Farsi, Dari, Pashto and Urdu for many years now.

[Invader]

US military began advertising on Persian radio stations here in every commercial break mmmmmaybe a year ago I think? Caught my attention. Or rather, the attention of my friend and his Farsi-speaking family. The US doesn't have the available resources to invade Iran. They still have the element of surprise, and they are going to surprise you with the kind of resources they have to invade. duh-dum-tschhhhh

[Spartiate]

The US doesn't have the available resources to invade Iran.

[ninja9578]

This will go no where. Iran is simply sending a message that an invasion of their sovereign territory will result in consequences. We illegally occupied one of their neighbours, there is no reason that they would think that they aren't next. If we don't attack them, they won't attack us. If we illegally attack them, they will counter-strike and rightfully so. It's like if Russia illegally invaded Canada, we would send a message to Russia that we aren't to be next unless they want a major fight. As long an Iran's ships are just sitting there watching, I support their right to be there. It's international waters after all. If they attack, well they are in for a surprise. Our resources aren't drained, and we have the UN behind us. Even with our poor economy, we could still level their country.

[Black_Eagle]

At this, I issue one single Lul.

[Ne-yo]

Even with our poor economy, we could still level their country. and with ease. Iran is engaging in political grandstanding right now aka "muscle flexing" because it wants to be recognized as a major player in this world and it feels left out with all the attention continuously circling around other middle eastern countries. They want to be viewed as a force to be reckoned with, which is why they are definitely going to follow through with moving ships close to here, they're in no position to send out any false signals because their credibility is at stake right now. They've made the statement and now they are forced to act upon it.

[ninja9578]

They certainly are a force to be reckoned with. We can't just take them out without thinking about it, it'd probably be even more of a nightmare than Iraq if we went at it alone. The difference between them and Iraq is, almost the entire UN didn't agree with our actions and didn't participate. If Iran attacks us, that's a legitimate reason for war, and the UN will agree. It wouldn't be the US vs Iran, it'd be the UN vs Iran. We would lead of course since we do have the most firepower, but with the combined UN troops, we could topple their government in weeks. Not only that, Iran is a nuclear power, which makes them much more dangerous. Iraq wasn't even close to nukes. I still think they are just showing off their forces in reaction to questionable US activities as of late and won't attack us unless we go first. They are crazy, but not stupid. They know that full power vs full power is like a team of American Gladiators vs a toddler in a tug of war.

[Ne-yo]

Not only that, Iran is a nuclear power, which makes them much more dangerous. True, however, it's pretty unclear how close exactly is Iran to producing the refined uranium material necessary for a weapon, should they decide to follow through on something like that. Nevertheless even if Iran were to produce weapons-grade uranium, they would also need to convert it from gaseous into a metal form and then miniaturise it to squeeze into the nose cone of a missile and fit it with some sort of guidance-remote- triggering system and this will take months if not years for them to accomplish. Considering their growing uranium stockpile and the indeterminate estimated time of how long it will take for them to produce highly enriched-uranium, Iran needs to look upon as a de facto nuclear state nonetheless.

[ninja9578]

True, but even unrefined uranium will make a dirty bomb. It's not a nuke, it's not even considered a WMD according to wikipedia, but it would cause a panic and tighter control which would push us into an ever more police/totalitarian state (not meaning to cross over to the other active thread.) And considering the number of unaccounted for Soviet nuclear weapons, its a remote possibility that they already have them. (I believe they do, but not based on any facts.)

[ThePreserver]

We're in their gulf, so they want to be in our gulf. Fair enough for me. But, if we leave their gulf... they should leave ours. (Not that we ever will leave their gulf... but one can hope!)