(06-15-2019, 04:34 PM)B2hibry Wrote:

(06-15-2019, 01:15 PM)mikesez Wrote: I think it is entirely possible that the ship hulls were pierced by small shells launched by drone.
Then US or Arab personnel went to rescue and inspect, and the footage of them doing so is now being recycled and presented to us as Iranians trying to clean their tracks.

It's ridiculous.
Iran gains nothing from disabling two oil tankers.
And if they were to do it, I don't see why they wouldn't admit to it.
If they really wanted to disrupt shipping in the strait, they would say something like, "your ships will stop being harassed once we get what we want."
They're not saying anything like that.
It wasn't them.
It could have been the Houthis, but I doubt it. Too far from their area of operation.

Couple things here:

1.) There is no missile in ours or their inventory that would cause that little damage that just so happens to be at the water line of each of the four ships.
2.) Anything fired in that region is tracked in a way that identifies the location, trajectory, plume size, and finally scrubs against a database for positive identification (slow walker or fast walker).
3.) The Iranians already claimed the Strait for themselves and claimed any ship passing through needs their permission and is subject to shipping tariffs.
4.) They have everything to gain in blocking oil, natural gas, and naphtha so that countries are forced to buy from them. Also, see tariffs.
5.) The Houthis for all intents and purposes are the Iranians!

Also, since it wasn't the Iranians, I guess they had no reason to fire on our UAV surveying the damage in International waters? Couldn't have been, the Iranians don't instigate anything!

1,2) You're right, this was some kind of off-the-books weapon. Smaller than a typical weapon.
3) I only started hearing this type of claim in the context of rescuing people from the disabled ships. I have not heard Iran claiming that they are owed a tariff or something like that.
4) you're right, but, in that case they would claim the attack.
5) the houthis are supplied by the Iranians. They don't really take orders from the Iranians. your claim is analogous to the claim that Israel takes orders from us. They do not, but we do supply them.

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