mimo2005

THE US is planning to position an aircraft carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf within months as a warning to Iran, according to reports.


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20951477-2,00.html



ps : This is a show of strength. This is a message.

Fr4665

waste of fuel people and time. it is a show of power but come on !

Joefireline

Now that is one of the dumbest things I've heard! It is going to make Iran want to attack them! Well, this is what you get when you have stupid people in power of the US...

bry623

It' like taking your hot girlfriend into a biker bar and daring a biker dude to do something about it. Good move.

40sondacurb

I wouldn't cal it a bad move. If the army wants to flex then let em flex.

Wozer

one has to take into account just how long it takes for a carrier, and its associated battle group, to get anywhere...

obviously there is the 'fear' (that great Bushistic goading tool to give those in power more power over us citizens) that if something happens we won't have a needed support structure to take any actions if needed...

this is a hard one to call...one side of me agrees with moving a group there, and the other totally agrees with the thoughts of we are being bullies and trying to provoke a confrontation...

at this point the scales of 'judgement' are perhaps leaning a tad towards the thought that we are being jerks as Iran hasn't really done anything to justify such a military presence in waters that are in no way 'ours'...

Myth-UK

Its like repeatedly flicking the private parts of an angry dog and then being surprised when it bites you!

How many wars does Bush want to get everyone into before he leaves power?

Joefireline

That's soo true Myth-UK.

Dry Crick

They need the practice. We are going to need to be there to protect our oil they are sitting on. We will need to be ready or they will waste what is left.

Myth-UK

Our oil???

Like the oil in Iraq is ours? Or we going to invade another country on a lie and a whim?

Bush believes he is allowed to do as he pleases, to coin a British phrase: "That geezer is bloody mental!"

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

Well, to be quite honest, there is nothing wrong with positioning a fleet of ships anyplace in the free world if the fleet is in International waters. If you read the material, those ships would not be on water that belongs to Iran or be on their sovereign territory, but in Internation waters. Therefore, what is the big deal?

Other countries quite often have ships near our country in International waters. Why does no one makes a big deal out of that issue when foreign ships are near our shores?

That is kind of standard practice around the world and if Mr. Dictator in Iran doesn't like it or feels threatened, too bad, that is life.

Myth-UK

That's not really the point is it? While i agree with what your saying Tumbleweed, dont you think showing an act of muscle is possibly making the situation around that area worse?

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

I do agree with you in principle. It could lead to misunderstandings of our intent (which neither of us know at this point).

However, what might be best in the future is if we show a presence in that area of the world at "all" times and not just when things get hot or when there is an issue. Otherwise, our fleet could "pass" through there from time to time or "sit there" for a few days during the year from time to time to remind Mr. Dictator that we have not gone away, nor do we intend to.

Myth-UK

Its the American Fleet...

It's George Bush...

Trust me, no one could forget you or the power that you have.

Us, The British and Americans are in the area anyway. Everyone knows the power at our goverments finger tips. Bush likes to point this at any given chance he has. What Bush is doing with Iran at the moment basically comes down to "Do as we say or suffer". Now he wants to put a (very powerful) agressive force just off his countries borders and you say this is okay because they need to know? They know already!

Why make a bad situation worse?

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

Just a few short questions.

> You said they were (sic), what aggression has this American fleet created toward Iran?

> What country took American hostages and kept them for years while good old Jimmy Carter wrung his hands and did nothing?

> What country released the hostages when the new President Reagan said that if they did not release them, he would go in and get them?

> Was taking hostages and siezing an Embassy aggression and who committed it?

> What country assists the insurgency in Iraq with both training, weapons, and free passage through their border?

> What country said the Holocaust never happened?

> What country says they will wipe Israel off the map?

> What country says they will see to it that American disappears from the face of the earth?

> What country not only provided illegal weapons to hezbollah
before the recent war, is still providing weapons, training, and money to hezbollah at this time which is clearly against the recent UN cease fire in that region?

You know, this could go on forever, but my time is limited this afternoon, so I will not cite any more examples of what aggression is.

Don't tell me the American Fleet is the aggressor against Iran or has shown aggression against Iran, because you can not prove that. We all know which country is the clear aggressor here and it is not the US.

Being from the UK, I am kind of surprised that you don't know that. I am happy for someone like Tony Blair who has the guts to do the right thing for his country and our country.

I am going to do you two favors. First, I am not going to cite any more aggressive movements by Iran which I could very easily. It is just not worth it to me if you don't see the big picture. Second, you have a free shot to dispute what I said on the forum, because this is my last posting in this thread. This is just not worth arguing when such a ridiculous defense of good old peaceful (non-agressive)Iran is taking place.

Post away, and I hope you have a great day.

Myth-UK

Remember Bush's 'Axis of Evil'???

Well, i remember watching his State of the Union speach, this was before this war with Iraq kicked off. I can remember thinking that we were going to war. Remember how he said that any country that houses or funds any kind of terrorist with basically feel the wrath of the American Army?

Well...

It made me laugh (to a point). As you rightly pointed i am a Brit. I am also a Brit that lived with terrorist long before 9/11.

My Dad was in the Army, my dad spent a couple of years serveing in Ireland while the PIRA raged a war against the British people. You know who were the biggest funders of those terrorists?

I'll give you one guess...

Yup, our greatest allies... The Great American People...

America has done a lot of those points that you have made itself. Why is no one willing to point these out?

Over 3000 people were killed by the IRA, more than on 9/ 11. Mostly innocent people, google warrington, Omaha, London, Birmingham to name a few.

Have you ever watched you dad look under your car incase there was a bomb underneath?

Now we have Bush on his Holy Cursade against the Axis of evil and we have to live with choices he makes everyday. I was in London the day the Underground was bombed, i was working next to Kings Cross. I saw the victims being brought out. I saw the death and i heard the pain that people were in. I was also working in London 2 weeks later when once again they tried to bomb the underground.

Have you ever felt that kind of fear? Have you ever seen that kind of suffering?

Want to know something? If Blair and Bush had been honest from the start and said they wanted Saddam, i would probably feel different now. Instead lies are killing innocent people in Iraq everyday, lies killed 52 people in London, lies killed over 200 people in Bali.

Now your saying it's perfectly okay to flex some muscle off another countries border?

You also forget that America and Britian were more than happy to equip, train and fund Bin Laden in the 80's.

There has never been any proof that Saddam helped Bin Laden...

bry623

It seems to me that the Catholics funded the IRA, not the American government.(I will ammend this if proven incorrect). And beleive me, I would bet that a vast mosjority of soldiers in NATO would prefer to be in Ireland vs. the Middle East. Reagan left British troubles to Britain. He called the USSR the "evil empire". His critics lambasted him for it at the time, now he is lauded as the greatest American ever. As I have said many times before, let's have History judge Bush.

There are to kinds of Britons, let's call them those that aspire to be like Neville Chamberlain, a cut and run appeaser who was partly to blame for WWII. And those who inspire to be like the United Kingdom's greatest citizen, Winston Churchill. A tough leader for tough times. If I were British, I sure know whom I would aspire to be like.

You say innocnets die, and I would agree that anyone who was killed as a victim of terror (ie 9-11) did not deserve so. Men and women who voluntarily put their lives on the line are not naive enough to think that it is going to be rosy. I am proud of every soldier who has died so that my country does not have to go through another horrible event like that.

Perhaps we should park our fleet in the English Channel.

Myth-UK

I am proud of every soldier as well i also believe that we made this mess in Iraq and that we should stay until its sorted out.

What i dont like the idea of is, is to be making more problems with other countries when we havent sorted out the problems in Iraq and Afganistan first.

Myth-UK

I was in Portsmouth a few years a go when one of your Aircraft Carriers was there - very very impressive!