He better wear an athletic cup, just in case Iran aims for his balls.

i heard a brief blurb on a business channel that a "contracted" US ship had "fired on" an Iranian ship. ???? No news out there yet?

I have it from reliable sources that Mullen is planning to use Inkblot as his secret weapon.

So Kevin, you might as well get the little critters boots and fatigues out of the closet and brush the fur off. In the meantime, I'll knit Inky a new beret.

"I have reserve capability in our Air Force and Navy," Mullen said. "It would be a mistake to think we are out of combat capability."

Translation: It would be a mistake for my career to admit that we are out of combat capability.

nemo:

no, Mullen's right. for all practical purposes, the Air Force and Navy are barely at war. lots of assets available. what we can't do is anything on the ground.

Nathan's right.

Given America's limited ground capability, a simultaneous escalation in Afghanistan and, say, an Iranian intrusion into Iraq or a North Korean-led invasion of the South and tactical nukes start looking like the next best option to countering ground assaults.

Bush and Cheney are probably thinking, "Of course, that's why we built the nukes in the first place."

What a house of cards the Administration has built up. Things could go massively wrong in a hot little hurry.

"for all practical purposes, the Air Force and Navy are barely at war. lots of assets available. what we can't do is anything on the ground."

Then the Air Force and Navy don't matter, do they? We are out of combat capability. But it's harmful to Mullen's career to admit it.

no, Mullen's right. for all practical purposes, the Air Force and Navy are barely at war. lots of assets available. what we can't do is anything on the ground.

Air and naval power without ground forces (either ours or someone else's already fighting the same enemy) aren't usually a recipe for victory. Further, it seems likely that Iran has the capacity, in the event of a conflict, to increase the demands on our land combat forces in neighboring areas (particular Iraq), so if we don't have spare land combat power, we don't have the capacity to fight Iran.

So, while the explicit premise that the Air Force and Navy have spare combat power would seem to be accurate, the implicit premise that air and naval power equates to capacity to take effective military action against Iran is dubious, as, therefore, is the conclusion that the US the capacity to take effective military action against Iran.

"for all practical purposes, the Air Force and Navy are barely at war. lots of assets available. what we can't do is anything on the ground."

For Mullen to say in that situation that we are not out of combat capability is like saying that your car is in perfect running order even though the entire electrical system is kaput. It doesn't matter that everything else in the car is in perfect running order.

The probable option for Bush is to provoke a confrontation, like, say the Gulf of Tonkin

US military ship shoots at Iranian boats
A ship contracted by the US military fired warning shots towards two Iranian boats, American defence officials said today.
...
The ship was approached by two unidentified small boats and its crew issued "standard queries" to the vessels by radio but did not receive a response, she said. The ship then fired a flare. The boats continued to approach the cargo ship and its security team fired "a few bursts" of machine gun and rifle warning shots, Robertson said.
"The small boats left the area a short time later," she added.
However, Tehran played down the incident, saying there was no confrontation....

While the Navy and Air Force have ample resources to bomb Iran (bomb bomb Iran as More-of-the-Same McCain advocates), Iran has the ability to shock the price of oil to over $200 per barrel which would decimate the world economy and put us into a depression worse than anything we've seen.

Weenie: Inkblot as his secret weapon

Is it a good idea to send the commander in chief into combat?
No, wait. Probably is a good idea. I'd start knitting parachutes, too!

cmdicely: Air and naval power without ground forces ... aren't usually a recipe for victory.
Victory isn't the goal. Endless war is the goal. Heckuva job, so far.

Nuking Iran: On the table

Impeaching George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney and cabal: Off the table

I read that there were some British businessmen supplying Iran with arms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mullen's right. for all practical purposes, the Air Force and Navy are barely at war. lots of assets available. -Nathan

53 percent of Air Force units, many using aging aircraft that require more frequent repairs, were considered “green,� or fully mission-capable, as of March, according to service data.

Shorter Admiral Mullen: "I don't want to end my career like Admiral Fallon and General Shinseki."

And nathan, I'll bet the Navy and Air Force are pretty surprised to hear that they're "barely at war." Ask your local Air National Guardsman what he/she thinks about that one as they ship off yet again to the Mess in Mesopotamia...

As lopez says: Impeachment unthinkable, tactical nukes "bring um on". Of course you cannot win or hold any ground with Navy/Airpower, but you can certainly make a hell of a mess. And a hell of a mess might be just the thing to continue/increase military spending.

pj: Things could go massively wrong in a hot little hurry.

RAPTURE--IFFIC!

that's why all the teevee chattermonkeys for a couple of years now have been pimping their ratings bonanza of a nuke hit on iran.. woof, lou dobbs, chris matthews, tim russert -- are all just rubbing their fat thighs thinking about it.

and whaddaya know --

U.S. ship opens fire on patrol boats near Iran
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An American cargo ship opened fire yesterday after it was confronted by patrol boats about 50 miles from the coast of Iran, CNN reports.

The all-news network says that the ship was carrying cargo to Kuwait on behalf of the U.S. military.

Reuters quotes an unidentified Defense Department official who confirmed that one of the Military Sealift Command's contract vessels was involved in the incident.

USA TODAY has requested comment from the U.S. Navy.

Update at 11:14 a.m. ET: Fox News reports that the Westward Venture fired warning shots at two Iranian boats after they failed to respond to warnings that they were getting too close to the contracted ship.

...."I have reserve capability in our Air Force and Navy," Mullen said. "It would be a mistake to think we are out of combat capability."

Wasn't Saddam saying similar things to Iran in the years before we invaded to confiscate his boasted of WMDs? I'm sure Mullen has equal credibility

...."I have reserve capability in our Air Force and Navy," Mullen said. "It would be a mistake to think we are out of combat capability."

When the US, which spends more on defense (or should we say offense?) than the rest of the world combined, has to make an assurance that it is not actually out of combat capability, we can pretty much assume that it actually is. But the again this regime has always been a big fan of the speak loudly and carry a small stick school of foreign relations.

Mullen >..."It would be a mistake to think we are out of combat capability."

Translated = an "OMG we`re in a fight for our way of life" draft once we start pulling our combat forces out of East Asia.

The Marines would probably show the first indication of this as grunts & attached units in Okinawa were moved to the Persian Gulf area.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw

You can't bluff if all your cards are showing. Iran has known all along that we aren't going to attack them with ground troops and if we bomb any of their installations all hell breaks loose in Iraq. This Administration is run by rich, elite dopes who haven't learned that you don't always get what you want.

Air and naval power without ground forces (either ours or someone else's already fighting the same enemy) aren't usually a recipe for victory.
Posted by: cmdicely

They were a many-years recipe for deterrence against the Soviets.

Folks here keep thinking the choices are invade and conquer Iran or not invade and conquer Iran. False dilemma.