sherpa

Ya. That's part of your job. We don't sit around and make up goofy call signs. We specifically came up with the strike plans to eliminate Bandar Abbas and Chahbahr air bases. Kind of silly, but as always, we take out the air defenses before the strike package arrives and both were protected by US Hawk (precursor to Patriot) sam batteries. Since Iran had been an ally, nobody knew exactly where they on the bases. Prior to repositioning satellites to get imagery, which takes time, they found one of the Raytheon guys who helped install them. Next day we get this hand drawn, by memory, diagram of where he thought they were. It was literally drawn in pencil on notebook paper. Anyway, we came up with the strike plans which include number and type of aircraft and weapons loadouts. Once we got there and started doing our normal ops, I got the first intercept of an Iranian airplane. got launched and was directed to the strike control frequency and told that our E2, the carrier early warning airplane had picked up an Iranian P3 headed towards us about 200 miles away. Got data linked up with the E2 who sent the intercept data to my heads up display and intercepted him at 100 miles. He never saw me until I joined on him and showed him my two Sidewinder missiles. Strike told me if he got within 25 miles I was going to get authorization to shoot him. I told them the Sidewinders were both good and if they gave me authorization there wasn't going to be any asking for verification; the missiles were coming off the rails. Anyway, he got within ten miles of Kitty Hawk and still no authorization, and he turned away. Would have made for quite a memory.

A fuzz buster is a device that alerts when a vehicle is being painted by a patrol car radar for speeding purposes.

Admirals don't plan stuff, they run stuff. When the Iranians seized the US Embassy in Tehran, we were in port at Subic Bay, Philippines. We had completed our six month western Pacific cruise and were to get underway for San Diego in two days. We were directed to go the northern Indian Ocean just south of Iran and prepare for whatever might happen. On the way, we ditched the Soviet Navy ship that always trailed us, and surreptitiously picked up the ill fated helicopters that were involved in the disastrous rescue attempt that Carter ran. They were stashed out of sight on the hangar deck, but that's another story. Anyway, on the way to our position east of Oman, which took us about seven days as I recall, we were directed to come up with plans to destroy the Iranian Air Force capability, so we came up with those strike plans. Lots of kind of funny stuff involved in that, including surreptitiously purchasing "Fuzz Busters" from Sears, who never figured out the US Navy was the buyer. After about three months on station we were relieved by Nimitz, who launched the rescue attempt a couple months later. When I was made aware of the actual plan by friends on Nimitz, obviously aborted after the disaster in the Iranian desert I was absolutely shocked.

I'm not interested in convincing you of anything, the process is called deterrence. If you deploy significant forces to an area it indicates your willingness to act if things get out of control. If certain things happen and you don't use those forces, it is worse than never deploying them. The positioning of sixth fleet forces in the Eastern Med is a lot less effective as a threat re Iran than assigning a carrier to the fifth fleet and positioning it in the Arabian Sea just east of Oman. Been there and planned that. As force deployment is now, if the US Navy was to act against Iran it would be a Tomahawk cruise missile thing more than a carrier airwing strike. I have no idea what the Saudi view is of permitting US Air Force aircraft to strike Iran from Saudi bases.

They always prepare. Wait until the Navy stations a carrier in the northern Indian Ocean, with a significant task force.

Ya, because it is far more humane to launch unguided explosives with motors attached to them into civilian areas other than hospitals.

I'm not sure where anybody got the idea that the Israelis were discussing getting rid of everybody in the Gaza. They said, and I believe they mean it and will try to do so, is to eliminate Hamas. This never ends until the Palestinians in the Gaza get Hamas gone or Hamas has a massive change of heart, which has near zero probability. Of course the other key to the equation is getting rid of the real source of this, which is the Iranian regime.

Are you out of your mind. It is your claim and your claim only that Israel is involved in ethnic cleansing. There is nothing "ethnic" about a terrorist organization. They are intent on once and for all, eliminating a political terrorist organization that has an expressed goal of eradicating them, which has recently participated in some of the most barbaric actions seen in history, and is the direct cause of massive misery for their own people, and they are run by a despotic regime and treated as human sacrifice to enable that distant, useless regime. In no way is that ethnic cleansing, and it is time it was dealt with.

It is particularly curious that he would suggest that the Israelis are engaged in "ethnic cleansing," since the Hamas Charter specifically calls for that regarding the Jews, who they also blame for WWI and WWII, as well as the Russian and French Revolutions.

Here's a list of countries that have expelled Palestinians since the creation of Israel. Iraq Saudi Arabia Libya Jordan Lebanon Kuwait In perhaps the largest displacement, (from over 400,000 to less than 20,000), Kuwait did so in 1991 following the US' and coalition forces forced the Iraqis out following their invasion of Kuwait. They did so because Arafat's PLO endorsed the Iraqi invasion. Looking at that list, and the undeniable history, I hold very little hope that Arab nations will resettle them in their lands.

2. Israel has just spun up a unit for that very purpose, which is to track down and kill those from Hamas who participated in the brutal massacre. 3. Been tried. Agreements proposed. Rejected by Arafat.

Simply reflecting on this horrible situation. Again, I've never supported Trump and never will, but when his name is constantly brought up by certain individuals in threads that really don't have to do with him, I note the following: There have been a number of accusations made against him by posts here that he "almost got us into a war with Iran." I never paid attention to them, but eventually I asked how, and the response was how he called off an offensive operation against Iran. Puzzled, but not surprised at the response. Now, we are in a war with Iran. Make no mistake, this thing by Hamas, some additional limited activity from Hezbollah, and now the latest missile and drone intercepts by US Naval forces from Iran's most recent franchise, he Houthi rebels in Yemen suggest that we are indeed in a war with Iran. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels are in fact, Iran. We have two carrier battle groups positioned because of this, and have now been asked to contribute a fortune in aid. Yep. Is is indeed, a war.

I know who I'm rootin' for.

And whine about the results they desired and guaranteed. Ignorance or stupidity, one or the other, and we pay the price, as always.

Can we stop thjs nonsense? We can blame the Saudis until sunset, and it makes no sense and doesn't matter. We can be completely energy independent if we had the desire to do so. This administration has been father to grossly incoherent and inconsistent energy policy. Campaign promise to end all drilling. Further promise to end all drilling on Federal land, and then approving the Willow project in Alaska. Gross delays in getting permits on existing, approved leases, then claiming that this situation is the result of oil companies. Altering refining and transportation regulations. Nonsense. It takes years, sometimes near a decade, to bring an existing lease/permit to production, and immense capital expenditure. The people who make those decisions are not stupid nor unpatriotic. They deal with a current Federal Gov and regulatory environment that is a windsock based on perceived voter response, hence the stupid release of 40% of the SPR prior to the midterms when polling indicated people were getting angry. The energy industry is extremely complex. From exploration, to discovery to lease and permit applications, to building infrastructure, to production and refining decisions regarding crack spreads, (for the uninitiated, that is the decision to refine crude to it's final product of light/medium or heavy final product, which means deciding to refine it to gas/jet fuel/diesel/heating oil/propane/grease ect.), to transportation, and hedging all of that with options and futures, which those companies and those that are heavily dependent on energy costs do is a very complicated and risky business. Engaging in it is made much more difficult when the next gov edict is anyone's guess. The people who do that are not evil. It is the environment in which they work.

Of course there are leases and permits that are not being used, and for very good reasons. It is nonsense to claim the gov has no control regarding price. Tax policy and the regulatory environment impact it immensely. In addition, the managing of the Strategic Petroleum reserve can have a significant impact. Remember when Biden sold off nearly half of it before the mid terms? Treasury estimated that brief supply dump lowered pump prices by 40 cents per gallon, though briefly. In addition, trying to strong arm OPEC and Saudi Arabia in particular has had impacts on supply in the past. Remember when Biden pleaded with SA to not limit production, then when they said no he asked them to wait until after the mid terms? They don't "control" the price. don't control the price, but they significantly impact it.

The government absolutely impacts the price of gas and other refined products. It does so directly via taxes and regulations regarding drilling, refining, transporting and controls leasing and drilling permits. It does so indirectly by making comments like no drilling on Federal Land. By the way, the "people who are "making their shareholders are happy," have a fiduciary responsibility to those shareholders. Thus, they are legally bound to act in shareholder interests. Nationalize the energy industry? sure. Worked great for the Venezuelans.

Every day is an adventure with this guy, and not in a good way. I am not confident that there won't be more adventures in the not too distant future.

I don't disagree with your comments about this particular event. I would like to point out that "JDAM" is a terminal guidance system. It can be used for a wide varieties of yields. A 500 pounder fused for contact produces a certain result. A 1000 or 2000 pounder produces a different result. The fuses used cause yet a different result. None of that result is the because it is a JADM. JADM is guidance. The result is physics, and not related to guidance.

Another useless endeavor. Might be a worthy objective, but they have countless, useless viewpoints with absolutely no reasonable ability to do anything. Doubt that? Watch how China would react to anything regarding its gross environmental posture, which extends from the sea to the land to space. The UN is a very expensive, totally useless noisemaker.

The world needs a functioning body that comes near the stated objectives of the UN. This group and it's structure is not, and is useless in these situations. What it is is a spy haven.

Innocent lives were lost because we abandoned those who supported us in a disgraceful and completely stupid manner. The lives I am talking about were not combat casualties. They were lost because the US fleeing Afghanistan, a decision made by this administration, put them at grave risk, and it didn't need to be that way.

It always amazes me when people state things that have absolutely nothing to do with the point they seek to refute. I never claimed anything regarding the US vis a vis an opinion that the UN is a useless organization in matters such as this. It has systemic problems that cannot be solved with the current structure of the organization, and is, thus, useless. It gives people a chance to talk, but it is a failure and will continue to be.

It gets people who can't do a thing talking, but doesn't stop a single bullet. The UN hasn't had any roll in preventing this kind of think for decades, and as long as China and the Russian Federation are permanent members of the Security Council, is is systemically destined to fail. Utterly useless.

I think a very strong case could be made that a number of people lost their lives as a result of the insanely executed fleeing. from Afghanistan. US servicemen, Afghan supporters and innocent civilians, and it extended beyond the action of that suicide bomber. Supporters of the US were not safely moved and have been killed by the Taliban, who is still hunting them.