Obama preparing to take on Iran?

BenBurch

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BenBurch
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Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are at a high point, as the Islamic Republic threatens to close off a vital waterway and two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups sit in the seas off the Iranian coast. But across the Persian Gulf, the U.S. has a previously unacknowledged weapon in reserve: a new special operations team.

Danger Room has confirmed with the U.S. Special Operations Command that a new elite commando team is operating in the region. The primary, day-to-day mission of the team, known as Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Coordinating Council, is to mentor military units belonging to the U.S.’ oil-rich Arab allies, who collectively are known as the Gulf Coordinating Council. Those Arab states consider Iran to be their primary foreign threat.

The task force provides “highly trained personnel that excel in uncertain environments,” Maj. Rob Bockholt, a spokesman for special-operations forces in the Mideast, tells Danger Room, and “seeks to confront irregular threats.” The U.S. military has not previously acknowledged the existence of the team, known as JSOTF-GCC for short.

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If anything, I think Obama would work with NATO first as opposed to going up against Iran unilaterally. He just got us out of Iraq and with an upcoming election, I don't think he's too keen to start another military operation.

Michael
 
coalesce said:
If anything, I think Obama would work with NATO first as opposed to going up against Iran unilaterally. He just got us out of Iraq and with an upcoming election, I don't think he's too keen to start another military operation.

Michael
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If Iran does something stupid like taking a pot shot at an aircraft carrier he certainly won't wait around for NATO or the UN. The response will be immediate and devastating.
 
WildCat said:
If Iran does something stupid like taking a pot shot at an aircraft carrier he certainly won't wait around for NATO or the UN. The response will be immediate and devastating.
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Yup, and things will get messy. Way messy. I hope that the leadership in Iran isn't stupid enough to start an out-and-out shooting war.

My hope is that things will stay covert, with a lot of rough-and-tumble cloak-and-dagger stuff going on behind the scenes. I'm guessing that a lot of that has already occurred.
 
Obama has used diplomacy to get both our allies and some non-allies to put pressure on Iran. It will not be necessary to attack them. Perhaps Iran will go insane and attack us. Unlikely, in my opinion. They will be pressured the way we should have pressured Iraq. They will survive, but will be significantly weakened, a result that prevents US haters from having anything to rail against.

It is about as much as we can hope for in a situation like this, and one that has been masterfully manipulated by the best diplomatic corps the US has had in many a decade.
 
WildCat said:
If Iran does something stupid like taking a pot shot at an aircraft carrier he certainly won't wait around for NATO or the UN. The response will be immediate and devastating.
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Unless China orders the US to get out of the Iranian-Oil region. ;)
 
WildCat said:
If Iran does something stupid like taking a pot shot at an aircraft carrier he certainly won't wait around for NATO or the UN. The response will be immediate and devastating.
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You may find NATO also moves pretty fast. It has been a while, but isn't there an 'attack on one member nation is an attack on all member nations' clause in the treaty
 
There most certainly is.

And I may be wrong, but don't a lot of our European based NATO members get a significant portion of their oil from this region?
 
Border Reiver said:
There most certainly is.

And I may be wrong, but don't a lot of our European based NATO members get a significant portion of their oil from this region?
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I don't know the current make up but CTF-151 patrolling of Somalia has a lot of NATO assets with it already. I really do believe the question should not be, would the US attack, but will there be much left for them to attack by the end of the first day
 
MG1962 said:
I don't know the current make up but CTF-151 patrolling of Somalia has a lot of NATO assets with it already. I really do believe the question should not be, would the US attack, but will there be much left for them to attack by the end of the first day
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And remember that Israel wants a piece of them too. If they open fire, Israel may cite mutual aide pacts and join the fray.
 
BenBurch said:
And remember that Israel wants a piece of them too. If they open fire, Israel may cite mutual aide pacts and join the fray.
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So lets recap the countries who WONT be shooting at Iran are Tonga, Costa Rica and Nepal...Have I left anybody out ;)
 
Should open conflict occur how does it not become NATO-Israel vs Iran-China-Russia?
 
Why not? China gets a lot of oil from Iran and seems to have a fair-sized trade with them too. Russia just doesn't like NATO-Israel.
 
AlBell said:
Why not? China gets a lot of oil from Iran and seems to have a fair-sized trade with them too. Russia just doesn't like NATO-Israel.
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Didn't they also have fair-sized trade in oil from Iraq? It is not as if we would go in and stop open market trade of oil after replacing the regime. NATO is no longer the enemies of Russia and China, more like heated rivals. Unless the goal for Russia and China was to get into a war with NATO, if they wanted to outright prevent military action against Iran they would enter into a formal defense treaty with the nation and announce it to the world. None of the large powers want to get into a hot war with one another any longer. China and Russia would surely be upset and it would hurt relations, but I doubt it would escalate to the point of military intervention.
 
AlBell said:
Why not? China gets a lot of oil from Iran and seems to have a fair-sized trade with them too. Russia just doesn't like NATO-Israel.
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China has no real dog in the fight. There only real concern would be disruptions to oil supply, which happens whether they join fight or not. Whats the best outcome for China, anything that allows them to continue driving their economy through exports. World oil supply disruptions will stall all that.

Russia? Well they are just cranky at everyone. The only real question there is will nationalism over ride logic, or will they wait to pick a fight they know they can win
 
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