Commentary On The Official Video Released By the U.S. Navy Showing Threatening Iranians
As has been all over the news, the United States Navy release a statement acompanied by a video that charged Iran with swarming, harasing, and threating US warships in the Strait of Hormuz. This release comes just weeks before president George W. Bush’s visit to the middle east. Bush is visiting israel in an effort to help revive and support peace talks in the Middle East, an action Iran has spoken openly against as more meddling in the affairs of others by the US government.
Iran has also made a statement that the US navy video is ‘clumsily fake’ and fabricated. A senior commander in the Revolutionary Guard (whom suposedly were the ones piloting the speed boats) stated
“The pictures that the Pentagon broadcast of the naval incident are file pictures and the voices have all been fabricated,”.
George W. Bush was quoted as saying “We viewed it as a provocative act. It is a dangerous situation and they should not have done it, pure and simple,” as well as US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley whom also warned Iran, saying the incident “came very close to resulting in an altercation between our forces and their forces. They’ve got to be very careful about this, because if it happens again, they are going to bear the consequences of that incident, and we think the Iranians need to be on notice that they are fishing in troubled waters here.”
As can be seen in the official video released by the US Navy, it is aparantly taken from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper and showed go-fast boats approaching the USS Hopper, the USS Port Royal and the USS Ingraham. At the end of the tape the screen goes black and you hear a voice say “I am coming to you… You will explode in a few minutes”.
Iran also made the statement that “The US version of the incident is anti-Iran propaganda ahead of Bush’s visit to the Middle East, what happened was an everyday occurrence.” They also stated that their naval forces merely identified the US vessels before both sides went on their way without any disturbance.
Comentary
So is this video real or fake? At one instant Iran claims it is fake, then goes on to validify it a bit say that “The US version” is fake therby implying that Iran has a side of the story that their not sharing.
Lets think about this logically for a moment. Lets say the roles were reversed and 3 Iranian warships aproached the United States coast and came within 10 miles. Lets say those same ships claimed to be in international waters and therby didn’t need to inform anyone of their passage. What would happen? As a sailor myself I am quite familiar with the United States Coast Guard and their operations. Standard protocall would be to sound a warning and approach the ships to find out why they are there.
So what were the Iranian Revolutionary Guard doing? More likely then not they were communicating with the US warships and protecting their borders.
It would seem clear that such video is released as anti-iranian propaganda to downplay their opinion of Bush’s presence in the Middle East. This also seems to support the theory of the US wanting to start a war with Iran. My question is when will the United States stop meddling in the affairs of other countries? How would americans feel if other countries meddled in their affairs? How would they like India coming over and trying to rig elections and impose their form of government on them by use of brute force? The golden rule never fails to apply, do unto others as you wish others to do unto you.
This article was written and published by Jasen Meyn on http://www.streamme.tv/ on January 9th, 2009.