Iran will give a decisive response to any mistake by the United States in the Gulf, the Revolutionary Guards navy said in a statement published on the Guards' news site Sepah News.
The US military said on Wednesday that 11 vessels from the Revolutionary Guards navy had come dangerously close to US Navy and Coast Guard ships in the Gulf, calling the moves "dangerous and provocative".
And given that Trump has apparently ordered our Navy to hit Iranian boats that target our ships (I assume the rules of engagement are actually more limiting than the Tweet implies), we really need to keep potential targets for retaliation out of the way.
And remember, those swarming close encounters can serve to dull our response to a real Iranian attack. So Iran has been warned, too.
But under the circumstances, whenever America sends capital ships--let alone our super carriers--into the Persian Gulf I wonder if everyone else is on crazy pills for not seeing the danger.
Trump should use the Defense Production Act to get whoever is manufacturing crazy pills to make Chloroquine pills instead. Or Pez. Just something else, eh?
UPDATE: The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards issued a warning:
"I have ordered our naval forces to destroy any American terrorist force in the Persian Gulf that threatens security of Iran's military or non-military ships," Salami told state TV.
Remember, we have small vessels and aircraft that can operate inside the Persian Gulf. And allies. We don't need to put our big stuff in the Persian Gulf to fight Iran in the Gulf.
By using more expendable forces there (worry to say that, but it is true that losing a patrol boat is not a big loss the way having Iran even just hit one of our carriers would be) and ashore plus missiles and aircraft launched far from the Gulf from our bigger ships and carriers we can reach Iranian forces without exposing our big stuff to Iranian attack.
UPDATE: What will Iran's nutballs choose?
Now the Americans have declared playtime is over and in the future the U.S. ships will open fire. The IRGC has to decide if they will test this. Much would be lost of the Americans did actually fire on the boats. While Iran can afford to lose a few of these boats, and declare a dozen or so men lost as martyrs, they cannot afford to lose the element of surprise. Until now the Iranians knew they could carry out of few successful suicide speed boat attacks because the Americans never opened fire. If that changes the Iranians have turned their speed boats into target practice rather than potential ship destroyers.
Interesting times.
UPDATE: My past recommendation about fighting Iran's boat swarms:
Could all those little boats be a threat? Sure. But we won't battle them with our large vessels. Unless the Iranians pull off a Gulf-wide Pearl Harbor, we'll pull back our big ships out of range and use our own small craft, armed helicopters, armed drones, aircraft, and even large vessels firing missiles at long range, to smash up all those little boats. We did it before during the Iran-Iraq War when we needed a defense in the northern Persian Gulf[.]
Fight them in a way that plays to our advantages and not their advantages.
