What's up With the American Sailors ?

Gobobbie, if you are familiar with that area, would you consider the island that they were captured near to be akin to Manhattan with its hustle and bustle, or more something more like one of the Florida Keys? Or perhaps San Francisco compared with San Clemente island for a diffrent anslogy? I am not personally familiar with the area and island in question, but I sure don't think it was something so close to actually being in one of their major harbors or ports. 

Kharq island is one of their major oil terminals, it would be akin to the gulf coast of Texas where the oil terminals are. It is also the site of some Persian heritage areas that predate the birth of Christ. They are sensitive to it because it extends their territorial claims out from the Iranian coast. During the iran-iraq war the iraqis bombed it pretty badly. Americans forget that that the CIA\British intelligence overthrew a democratically elected government in 1953 because of oil interests. They cemented the power of the shah who was not a popular despot, but he was our despot. We supported Sadaam Hussein in his decade long war against the Iranians. During the tanker war when Reagan reflagged Kuwaiti tankers, so the navy would be able to protect them, we fought a series of battles against the Iranian revolutionary guard small boats and introduced them to US Navy whoopass. During this time the USS Vinciencies shot down an Iranian civil airliner. So they really don't have much reason to like us. Bob Gregory Ruining one kit at a time

I am pretty familiar with the Iran Iraq war and the shots fired at that time. I was GI then and paid pretty close attention to current events, as well as trying to decyper the reality later.  Reading between the lines as I was taught and trained to do. Anyways, it's good to hear some clarification on the locale of the events. 

And it's been a remarkable day.

 

gobobbie

Americans forget that that the CIA\British intelligence overthrew a democratically elected government in 1953 because of oil interests. They cemented the power of the shah who was not a popular despot, but he was our despot.

The big backstory on that was that Iran has a border with Russia, back then the USSR. We ran Operation Dark Gene and Operation Ibex out ot northern Iran, tasked with finding holes in the Soviet air defence systems. RF-4's.

Now we can add the wheeling and dealing to give them back a half dozen terrorists for a few more being held........Along with the UN now saying they have held up their end so far........

The Code of Conduct restricts and guides actions of personnel during war or authorized intervention. It has specific guidance and rules pertaining to POWs. But the sailors were not at war and they weren't POWs. I think that even if you stretch this circumstance to say it is covered by the code, their statement re 'making a mistake which resulted in their entry into Iranian waters', doesn't constitute a disloyal or harmful statement. IMHO

 

Tojo72

What's up with American Sailors apologizing on video for their actions ??? "We made a mistake".I never seen anything like that.Why would they give something of propaganda value to Iran.I would have thought that common sailors would be be instructed to keep their mouth shut in all circumstances and leave statements to the brass.

Can any service men or ex servicemen comment on that ?

 

The US has not declared war on another country since 1941.  Yet were are still currently "at war". Just ask the folks fighting  all over the globe, and their families. And they were certainly taken prisoner, the photos of their capture prove that. The Code of Conduct applies in their case. While their statements can not be construed as disloyal, they certainly have propaganda value to the regime in Tehran. Otherwise they would not have broadcast them. 

Interesting where the seven including six Iranian/ Americans who were either released from jail or had their charges dropped, refused to go to Iran. They all stayed in the US. So there was really no "swap for terrorists". A more accurate term would be that we dropped charges against spies involved in industrial espionage, stealing tech secrets, exporting goods that were sanctioned and so forth.

Stik, question. If a rubber boat full of Chinese SOF was caught off Catalina Island, what would we do? I honestly don't know.

I kind of put my foot in mouth on that.....posted up before it was said who and what they were.  Thanks for straighting me out on that, appreciate it muchly.

As far as holding anyone caught off of Catalina, in todays climate, we would probably charter a plane to take them back with first class ammenities all the way, and issue apologies for detaining them.

Sure, but the problem there is that they won't want to leave...

I have the feeling that our guys would escort any Chinese out of US territorial waters. Unless there was some obvious blatant reason to detain them. We tend to play by gentleman's rules when it comes to our borders. 

AMEN ! I have to stop here . I lost one brother in Fallujah and the other is dying slowly from his injuries there .  T.B.