Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Contrary to international reputation, Americans are occasionally capable of rising to Middle Eastern standards of subtlety. As you've no doubt heard, yesterday our navy rescued 13 Iranian sailors from a hijacked fishing boat:
U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country's sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday.
The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of the ship Thursday in the North Arabian sea, near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy.
The rescue prompted the captain of the freed ship to offer his "sincere gratitude," according to Josh Schminky, a Navy Criminal Investigative Service agent aboard the Kidd.
"He was afraid that without our help, they could have been there for months," Schminky said.
The rescue Thursday came two days after Iran said the United States should not send any more warships into the Persian Gulf.
But for those of you who don't speak "subtle," let me translate: In American English, this means "Don't even think about closing the Strait. We'd waste you in ten seconds flat."
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Apr '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Ah, but can we rise to the level of the Brits, who "are so subtle that their feints go unnoticed."?
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
You think?
Seems about as subtle as a freight train, but maybe that's just me.
Apr '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
You think?
Seems about as subtle as a freight train, but maybe that's just me.
It seems you misapprehend me.
Jul '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
I understand the Iranian Navy has glass bottom boats so that they can fully view the prior Iranian Navy.
Mar '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
I think it's less subtle than that -- we are the good guys.
Mar '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Yahtzee, Ahmadinejad. Who looks callous, petulant, and inept now?
Sep '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
It would be nice to know how quickly and how widespread the dissemination of this story happens. We can be sure, at least it will be known within the Iranian Navy
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
You can be both the good guys and the smart guys. Good is rescuing the sailors. Smart is making sure everyone knows about it.
May '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
The assumption being that president "Vote Present" would take time off from campaigning to phone in the decision to do it. I think it's a real coin toss whether he would act, or dither, or "lead from behind."
For insight into the president's decision making process click here.
Nov '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
What will also be known to the Iranian navy is that while the Daring looks pretty good against surface and air threats, it looks pretty weak against underwater ones. It has one bow mounted mid-frequency sonar that operates in a pretty narrow band. That makes it deaf to the low frequencies used for passive tracking as well as the high frequencies used by some torpedos. Not too much of a problem if the issues with networked underwater warfare have been dealt with and the Daring travels with other suitably equipped ships and/or has a hefty complement of sonobuoys and dipping sonar, but is that the case? I've been out of this game now for a number of years, but it wasn't that long ago that reports were floating around re. Iran's interest in such things as micro and mini subs, very small aircraft suitable for mine laying & torpedo firing, and even Shkval torpedos.
Jan '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
To me the real irony is the USS Kidd is a destroyer class built for the Shah of Iran but never delivered. When the revolution occurred the 4 ships of that class were taken up by the US Navy. Their unofficial designation is Khomeini class destroyers.
Dec '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
A US carrier task force seizes a fishing vessel from Somali pirates armed with small arms and RPGs. Forgive my obtuseness, but how does that translate in any language, culture or universe into "we can destroy you entire navy in seconds flat"? Perhaps you are subtly conveying the ironic message that the Iranians must have gotten from this incident, that is, "under Obama, the US Navy has been reduced to a search-and-rescue service focused solely on humanitarian missions."
Mar '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
A US carrier task force seizes a fishing vessel from Somali pirates armed with small arms and RPGs. Forgive my obtuseness.....
No worries. Here's the deal.
The team who conducted the boarding of the dhow was deployed from a helicopter off USS KIDD, an Arleigh Burke class DDG.
Every surface vessel in the US Navy trains a complement of ownship's crew to conduct Visit Board Search and Seizure operations. They are normally trained for approach operations (you come up alongside a vessel in a RHIB and conduct a face to face discussion with the master), compliant boarding (the vessel's master agrees to allow a team to come aboard, usually unarmed or lightly armed) and non-compliant scenarios (you cannot raise the vessel via radio, or there are "tripwires" detected).
Most VBSS teams do not get Heliborne training. Moreover, since there were pirates onboard, this doesn't qualify as "non-compliant", it qualifies as "opposed". Only special forces teams fulfill both of these (helo insertion/opposed boarding) criterion. Not necessarily SEALs, these HVBSS special forces teams are considered "strike group assets". The asset is controlled at the CSG level, but it doesn't mean a whole CSG responded.
Mar '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
As far as what the message was, Stuart, here's the idea:
Iran has been saber rattling, saying things that suggest it wants to be a regional power and is ready and mature enough to do that, saying it can project power against its neighbors, and that it can control the Arabian Gulf (that's right, Iran, you want to play rough, well, we renamed the Persian Gulf for political reasons) through the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, it charges the West, and America specifically, with being an imperialist power bent on destruction.
The genius of this little deft operation is that it undermines all of Iran's claims, and meanwhile establishes the point, with any Iranian citizens who object to the tyranny of the current regime, that the United States is not deaf, and is not just some imperialist power seeking to enslave Muslims in order to reduce the price of oil. It makes the Iranian regime look childish and so impotent that it couldn't even manage to get its own citizens back from a measly band of pirates.
How are you going to project power if you can't rescue your own citizens from a fishing boat?
Oct '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
What irritates me about this whole thing is how smugly our Commander-in-Chief assumes credit for this, the guy that is just itching to down-grade our military capability and in his ignorance conflated U.S Marines with dead bodies.
Dec '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Crow's Nest: It makes the Iranian regime look childish and so impotent that it couldn't even manage to get its own citizens back from a measly band of pirates.
How are you going to project power if you can't rescue your own citizens from a fishing boat?
Okay, then: how laughable must the Iranians find the UK's deployment of the HMS Daring to the Gulf, given the following facts?
Paul and Rachel Chandler: 'We're so lucky to be home'
Navy urged act as Somali pirates hold 700 sailors hostage
Not to mention:
Iran confirms capture of five British sailors
Neither the Royal Navy nor the US Navy have made the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa safe for navigation from ill-equipped pirates, because the US and UK may have the military means to do so but lack the will to make it happen.
The Iranians can be forgiven for grandiosely thinking (or at least bluffing) that they may have the opportunity and means to turn the Gulf into a Persian lake.
Dec '10
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
THIS is how you send a subtle message not to challenge your nationals at sea:
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Stuart Creque: THIS is how you send a subtle message not to challenge your nationals at sea:
Jan 7 at 3:37pm
It's how you send a message, sure.
Apr '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Stuart Creque: THIS is how you send a subtle message not to challenge your nationals at sea:
Jan 7 at 3:37pm
It's how you send a message, sure. · Jan 7 at 9:47pm
Yeah, I'm more in favor of our remaining the good guys on this. I support executing them, sure, but there should be a military tribunal before the killing. Accepting a surrender and then killing them without due process is tacky.
Mar '11
Re: Dear Iran: We Too Can Be Subtle
Neither the Royal Navy nor the US Navy have made the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa safe for navigation from ill-equipped pirates, because the US and UK may have the military means to do so but lack the will to make it happen.
You won't get an argument from me about the imperative for a more aggressive, less stringent ROE against Somali pirates.
Somalia is an object lesson for those who don't understand how US interest extend more broadly that our boarders--it is perfectly demonstrative of how the consequences of a failed state spill over and effect an entire region in every imaginable way (humanitarian, economic, violence, terrorism, etc).
Terrorist networks and other less than savory actors--whether funded by other larger terrorist groups, rogue states, or privately from black market activity--step in to fill that void.
Which is all really to say, as surely your aware, Stuart because you seem to be following the issue closely, a more aggressive ROE, "kill the pirates!" only sends a message to the young, starving Somali male who joined up to feed his family--it must be coupled with other responses to address root causes.