Game on!! US Carrier task force to intercept Iranian “navy”

[as seen on tv]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/21/us-yemen-security-usa-navy-idUSKBN0NC0VZ20150421

Houthis – don’t get your hopes up on being re-armed by Iran for your final push to topple the legitimate Yemen government and replace it with Iranian backed puppets. The US Navy is on the way.

Specifically, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and it’s escort ship guided missile cruiser “Normandy”. (Full disclosure: neither the Roosevelt family nor the city of Normandy receive royalties for our navys’ naming rights)

The USS Theordore Roosevelt is not an additional ship, however. It’s relieving the USS Carl Vinson, a carrier NOT named after a president. And the USS George HW Bush (the elder) left the middle east on April 11th, so our actual aircraft carrier strength is half what it was a a month ago.

The Iranians are thought to be sending: machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, light artillery, armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft missiles and a bunch of other stuff needed by the Houthis to enforce discipline on a resisting sovereign nation. And to attack Saudi aircraft which came to their defense. The US plan is to request voluntary boarding of suspected Iranian munitions ships. And if that request is not accommodated, fire “warning shots across the bow”.

Last night on PBS some geek worried that one of these warning shots could hit someone by accident and cause casualties. Note that there was no concerned expressed for the thousands of yemen civilians killed by Houthi rebels over the past month. No – instead we’re concerned that some actual Iranians in uniform might possibly get hurt.

Given the nature of our “concerns”, I doubt there will even be warning shorts, let alone casualties. "You don't want to be boarded? Our apologies - we'll stand aside and let you pass. Have a nice day."

Nothing can be allowed to interfere with the signing ceremony where we acknowledge Iran’s rights to build nukes, and give them all their frozen assets back, so they can get on with the job.

Full disclosure – here’s the location of all US carriers, as of April 15th (no – you don’t need a spy satellite to determine this – the US Navy publishes it for everyone to see):

· Nimitz – in dry dock, Bremerton Washington, undergoing maintenance
· Eisenhower – in dry dock, Norfolk VA – 4 months behind schedule for completion of maintenance
· Carl Vinson – just left the Arabian sea, enroute to either San Diego or Norfolk VA for maintenance
· Theodore Roosevelt – just arrived in the Arabian sea
· Lincoln – completed dry dock Nov, getting additional upgrades/maint which won’t be done until 2016
· George Washington – restricted duty off the coast of Japan, not fully operational
· John Stennis – on a training mission, off the coast of San Diego
· Harry Truman – at Norfolk, its home port, but NOT in dry dock
· Ronald Reagan – whereabouts not published, home port is San Diego
· George Bush – at Norfolk, its home port, but not in dry dock
· Gerald Ford – construction began 2007. Scheduled completion 2017
· John F. Kennedy – construction began 2009. Scheduled completion 2022
· Enterprise – construction scheduled to begin in 2018

To sum up – 5 of 10 active ships are in for repair. 2 of the 5 remaining ships are at sea, but unavailable for combat duty. Of the 3 remaining ships, 1 (the Roosevelt) is on duty in the Arabian sea, one just left for maintenance and repairs, and the presence of the last one (Reagan) is not published but thought to be somewhere in the pacific, to support the not-fully-operational George Washington. Clearly this is a "peacetime navy", despite its appearance of size and strength.

 

[MrMike]

I think we should bomb Iran with Obamacare...

That'll bring them to their knees...

 

[Barbella]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/21/us-yemen-security-usa-navy-idUSKBN0NC0VZ20150421

Houthis – don’t get your hopes up on being re-armed by Iran for your final push to topple the legitimate Yemen government and replace it with Iranian backed puppets. The US Navy is on the way.

Specifically, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and it’s escort ship guided missile cruiser “Normandy”. (Full disclosure: neither the Roosevelt family nor the city of Normandy receive royalties for our navys’ naming rights)

The USS Theordore Roosevelt is not an additional ship, however. It’s relieving the USS Carl Vinson, a carrier NOT named after a president. And the USS George HW Bush (the elder) left the middle east on April 11th, so our actual aircraft carrier strength is half what it was a a month ago.

The Iranians are thought to be sending: machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, light artillery, armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft missiles and a bunch of other stuff needed by the Houthis to enforce discipline on a resisting sovereign nation. And to attack Saudi aircraft which came to their defense. The US plan is to request voluntary boarding of suspected Iranian munitions ships. And if that request is not accommodated, fire “warning shots across the bow”.

Last night on PBS some geek worried that one of these warning shots could hit someone by accident and cause casualties. Note that there was no concerned expressed for the thousands of yemen civilians killed by Houthi rebels over the past month. No – instead we’re concerned that some actual Iranians in uniform might possibly get hurt.

Given the nature of our “concerns”, I doubt there will even be warning shorts, let alone casualties. "You don't want to be boarded? Our apologies - we'll stand aside and let you pass. Have a nice day."

Nothing can be allowed to interfere with the signing ceremony where we acknowledge Iran’s rights to build nukes, and give them all their frozen assets back, so they can get on with the job.

Full disclosure – here’s the location of all US carriers, as of April 15th (no – you don’t need a spy satellite to determine this – the US Navy publishes it for everyone to see):

· Nimitz – in dry dock, Bremerton Washington, undergoing maintenance
· Eisenhower – in dry dock, Norfolk VA – 4 months behind schedule for completion of maintenance
· Carl Vinson – just left the Arabian sea, enroute to either San Diego or Norfolk VA for maintenance
· Theodore Roosevelt – just arrived in the Arabian sea
· Lincoln – completed dry dock Nov, getting additional upgrades/maint which won’t be done until 2016
· George Washington – restricted duty off the coast of Japan, not fully operational
· John Stennis – on a training mission, off the coast of San Diego
· Harry Truman – at Norfolk, its home port, but NOT in dry dock
· Ronald Reagan – whereabouts not published, home port is San Diego
· George Bush – at Norfolk, its home port, but not in dry dock
· Gerald Ford – construction began 2007. Scheduled completion 2017
· John F. Kennedy – construction began 2009. Scheduled completion 2022
· Enterprise – construction scheduled to begin in 2018

To sum up – 5 of 10 active ships are in for repair. 2 of the 5 remaining ships are at sea, but unavailable for combat duty. Of the 3 remaining ships, 1 (the Roosevelt) is on duty in the Arabian sea, one just left for maintenance and repairs, and the presence of the last one (Reagan) is not published but thought to be somewhere in the pacific, to support the not-fully-operational George Washington. Clearly this is a "peacetime navy", despite its appearance of size and strength.

So.. in other words.... we pretty much got nothing navy-wise. We need to DOWNSIZE it! Yeah, that's the ticket!

 

[as seen on tv]

I think we should bomb Iran with Obamacare...

That'll bring them to their knees...

i'm waiting for someone like "salad man" or "buggy malone" to post about how iranians get free cradle to grave healthcare from their benevolent government.

 

[MrMike]

I feel bad for our military being stuck with Obama as CIC...

So.. in other words.... we pretty much got nothing navy-wise. We need to DOWNSIZE it! Yeah, that's the ticket!

 

[MrMike]

Give it time, they will tout Iran as a great example of a single payer system and a model we should follow... lol

i'm waiting for someone like "salad man" or "buggy malone" to post about how iranians get free cradle to grave healthcare from their benevolent government.

 

[MrMike]

Well... they could send this? hehehehe

 

[as seen on tv]

So.. in other words.... we pretty much got nothing navy-wise. We need to DOWNSIZE it! Yeah, that's the ticket!

astute observation - that was what i was indirectly alludig to. I don't think that under "normal times" half our carrier fleet is getting its oil changed and tires rotated. this has to be some deliberate plan to reduce our presence on the world stage.

and clearly its working -

houthis toppling yemen
ISIS rampaging across Iraq and Syria
Boatloads of refugees drowning in the mediterranean
russia invading crimea and ukraine
north korea launching missles every few weeks
china occuping japanese islands and building air force bases there

great work, president obama. you created a power vacuum for others to fill.

 

[as seen on tv]

Well... they could send this? hehehehe

"clinging to our aircraft carriers and tradional peacekeeper roles out of fear and ignorance . . . "

 

[MrMike]

I'm surprised the Obama Libtoons haven't declared Navy whites (uniforms) racist...

(give it time... give it time!)

"clinging to our aircraft carriers and tradional peacekeeper roles out of fear and ignorance . . . "

 

[Barbella]

astute observation - that was what i was indirectly alludig to. I don't think that under "normal times" half our carrier fleet is getting its oil changed and tires rotated. this has to be some deliberate plan to reduce our presence on the world stage.

and clearly its working -

houthis toppling yemen
ISIS rampaging across Iraq and Syria
Boatloads of refugees drowning in the mediterranean
russia invading crimea and ukraine
north korea launching missles every few weeks
china occuping japanese islands and building air force bases there

great work, president obama. you created a power vacuum for others to fill.

It's really unbelievable how we, as a country, could have allowed ourselves to be sold down the river like that. And still, despite all of that, half of our citizenry is either blindly obeisant to our 'ruling class' as long as the checks and freebies keep coming, while the other 49% are too busy watching reality shows and playing with their I-phones and X-boxes to worry about it. That leaves about 1% who know what's going on, and actually CARE.

Screwed.

 

[as seen on tv]

It's really unbelievable how we, as a country, could have allowed ourselves to be sold down the river like that. And still, despite all of that, half of our citizenry is either blindly obeisant to our 'ruling class' as long as the checks and freebies keep coming, while the other 49% are too busy watching reality shows and playing with their I-phones and X-boxes to worry about it. That leaves about 1% who know what's going on, and actually CARE.

Screwed.

i think we were on this trendline - diminished international profile - as a consequence of unpopular middle east wars under bush, already.

even if hillary, or romney, or some other random name had come to the oval office, it would be hard to sell the concept of "let's put more men in uniform, and more task forces deployed to hot spots"

the bright spot in all this is that nations like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and even Egypt are now realizing that they have a role in their local "neighborhood watch", and it can't always be some reservists whose day job is Wal Mart keeping the peace for them.

the un-bright spot is that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt were left to figure this out on their own, and we're double crossing them by facilitating Iranian nukes.

If we weren't in the midst of a nuke treaty with Iran now, Israel would have likely taken the bomb facilities out with an air strike already.

 

[Barbella]

i think we were on this trendline - diminished international profile - as a consequence of unpopular middle east wars under bush, already.

even if hillary, or romney, or some other random name had come to the oval office, it would be hard to sell the concept of "let's put more men in uniform, and more task forces deployed to hot spots"

the bright spot in all this is that nations like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and even Egypt are now realizing that they have a role in their local "neighborhood watch", and it can't always be some reservists whose day job is Wal Mart keeping the peace for them.

the un-bright spot is that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt were left to figure this out on their own, and we're double crossing them by facilitating Iranian nukes.

If we weren't in the midst of a nuke treaty with Iran now, Israel would have likely taken the bomb facilities out with an air strike already.

I agree on all of that... we've been sinking, slowly but steadily, for decades. We've got nobody to blame but ourselves, however. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" has been reversed for decades now.

Idealism is pretty much dead.... and unless that changes, our continued decline is pretty much inevitable.

 

[Arkady]

Clearly this is a "peacetime navy", despite its appearance of size and strength.

This is a wartime navy despite us being at peace. It's a carrier fleet so absurdly large that we can afford to bring a bunch of them in simultaneously for maintenance, and yet STILL have more out to sea than the combined aircraft carrier might of Russia and China. The burden on the American taxpayer of this massively redundant navy is a tragedy.

 

[Zam-Zam]

This is a wartime navy despite us being at peace. It's a carrier fleet so absurdly large that we can afford to bring a bunch of them in simultaneously for maintenance, and yet STILL have more out to sea than the combined aircraft carrier might of Russia and China. The burden on the American taxpayer of this massively redundant navy is a tragedy.

We're "at peace"? Who knew?

As America's longest war drags on, Afghanistan becomes 'Foreverstan'

http://www.globalpost.com/article/6522112/2015/04/20/americas-longest-war-drags-afghanistan-becomes-foreverstan

Just how many civilians have died in the West's campaign against the Islamic State?


ERBIL and KIRKUK, Iraq — The United States is fighting another war in the Middle East. Thousands of soldiers are on the ground, planes are in the air, and shiploads of weapons are being sent to local allies.


The US-led coalition of 21 countries — formed in August to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State, in the words of US President Barack Obama — has so far carried out some 3,200 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Those strikes have also targeted Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.


The Obama administration has authorized more than 3,000 American military personnel to train and advise Iraq’s security forces as they try to recapture territory from the militant group. Hundreds more soldiers from Germany, France and the United Kingdom, among others, are at work in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, training the Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga.


http://www.globalpost.com/article/6519518/2015/04/17/degrade-and-destroy-inside-wests-war-against-islamic-state



Someone alert the White House.....

 

[as seen on tv]

This is a wartime navy despite us being at peace. It's a carrier fleet so absurdly large that we can afford to bring a bunch of them in simultaneously for maintenance, and yet STILL have more out to sea than the combined aircraft carrier might of Russia and China. The burden on the American taxpayer of this massively redundant navy is a tragedy.

a wartime navy, with half the ships in drydock or otherwise going signficant refits?

are you crazy?

if we'd tried this in world war 2, we'd all be speaking japanese now . . .

 

[as seen on tv]

I agree on all of that... we've been sinking, slowly but steadily, for decades. We've got nobody to blame but ourselves, however. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" has been reversed for decades now.

Idealism is pretty much dead.... and unless that changes, our continued decline is pretty much inevitable.

idealism isn't dead - but both political parties point to the idealists on the other side, and scream "extremists"

 

[Arkady]

We're "at peace"? Who knew?

We're about as much at peace as we've been at any point in the past three quarters of a century. So far in 2015, one US troop has been killed in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. You have to go back to the Clinton era to find another period this peaceful for the US. It's on par with the pace of American dying we had in Haiti and the former Yugoslavia during the 90s. It's not even on par with the pace of KIA in the invasion of Panama or Grenada, much less deadlier engagements like Desert Storm and the peacekeeping in Beruit.

 

[Arkady]

a wartime navy, with half the ships in drydock or otherwise going signficant refits?

Yes. We're so vastly overloaded with carriers, that we have the luxury of timing all those refits simultaneously and STILL fielding more aircraft carriers than the potential combined maximum of the two adversarial superpower navies.

if we'd tried this in world war 2, we'd all be speaking japanese now . . .

Do a real thought experiment here: what would happen if 1941 Japan attacked us today, and all we had out there was three modern carrier fleets to meet them? The answer, of course, is we'd sink their whole Navy in a day. But, you'll counter, that's only because modern technology is so superior. True. But my point here is that you don't judge the potency of your military forces relative to some abstraction, but rather relative to the adversaries you face. Today, Russia and China combined have two deployable aircraft carriers, each one on par with what we were building in the late 1950s, and each about half the size of our carriers. Even in a time, like now, when we choose to dock a bunch of our fleet simultaneously, we STILL have three deployed and able to fight, plus two others at sea that could theoretically be pressed into combat in a pinch. Yes if 1941 Japan showed up with countless ships miraculously retrofitted with 2015 technology, we'd be in trouble. But relative to contemporaneous threats, we're VASTLY overbuilt, at horrendous cost to the American taxpayer.

 

[as seen on tv]

We're about as much at peace as we've been at any point in the past three quarters of a century. So far in 2015, one US troop has been killed in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. You have to go back to the Clinton era to find another period this peaceful for the US. It's on par with the pace of American dying we had in Haiti and the former Yugoslavia during the 90s. It's not even on par with the pace of KIA in the invasion of Panama or Grenada, much less deadlier engagements like Desert Storm and the peacekeeping in Beruit.

late 20th century history 1o1 for arkady:

Reagan presidency
Nixon ended the vietnam war started by JFK and expanded by LBJ
Eisenhower era (post truman's korea)
Clinton era
Carter era (up to a point)