Not So Swift Boats
15th January 2016
Steven Hayward at PowerLine blog smells a rat, a big ugly one.
About this business of the navy patrol boats captured by Iran. As Scott and Investors Business Daily point out, there’s something off about the official story that a “navigation error” caused the boats to stray into Iranian waters. I don’t believe this story for a moment. (And the initial explanation that the boats “drifted” there after engine trouble has already been withdrawn. Why was that put out or not disavowed immediately?) One hopes that boat crews would navigate by means in addition to GPS since GPS could be taken out in a serious conflict, but unless our sailors have become incompetent or there was some extraordinary failure on these boats (unlikely I think), this “navigation error” sounds like either a deliberate mission that the Pentagon can’t acknowledge*, or the Iranians captured the boats in international waters, and we’re not willing to dispute their claim because of the Iran arms treaty agreement.
I don’t believe the government’s story for a minute, either. A number of former special forces types have explained at great length that this fable is, due to the planning and preparation for such a mission, exactly that — a fable.
This is just a fig leaf to excuse the government from having to respond to a blatant violation of international law by the Iranians, which one might call the Obama Benghazi Doctrine.