Ever hear of a trial balloon? No response to this and things will escalate. I expect things to escalate.

VegasRick on November 8, 2012 at 9:25 PM

There is no doubt that things will escalate. And although a dead embassador apparently doesn’t register too much of a blip on the radar, I wonder if the press will just drape tablecloths over the next “man-made disaster” that is inevitable at this point or something bad enough will happen that even they will have to report on it.

Although if they do, it will be Bush’s fault.

Sorry. I was thinking the same thing you were and typing at the same time, or I would have just quoted you. :)

Axe on November 8, 2012 at 9:27 PM

Hey, no worries, just another case of GMTA :)

Helping taliban on their road to their 70 virgins.

This will warm you heart.

These guys take great care to leave the horses, goats and the women and children safe in the tents, Man that night vision takes awhile to get used too and the way then can sparkle laser beams is fantastic! Not like 40 years ago that’s for sure! What you think Chief you up for a night like this? What did we do other then? Drop flares to illuminate the action! The old days you can have em! Those 30′s make our old 60′s look like pea shooters! J

http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=f213b73d647e

The Iranian “air force” is a joke. It’s hilarious and pathetic.
Those two who missed that drone were more worried about a couple FA-18s on their six. Hell, ONE could have taken out both of them.
Recall how Ronaldus Magnus gave the “go order” for Tomcats to take out the Libyan fighters? If you’ve never seen or heard the video and/or radio traffic, the pilots were really pissed that the bogeys “locked onto” them. It’s priceless. I remember it by heart:
“Goddam it, that’s the FOURTH time that sonofabitch has locked onto me” … and then: “Got that raghead sonofabitch!”
THAT’S why we really need a C-in-C, NOT a P-in-C to run this country and OUR military.
A provocative act by Iran? Of course it was. They ran away screaming like little girls.
Let’s DO this and get it over with or just shut up!
PERIOD.
~(Ä)~

The only folks who would get in trouble for shooting at a drone (with a bb gun) (or pointing a laser at one) would be …er…us.

Your government lies to you constantly. Why do you believe this? Is it because you want to believe it?

Dante on November 8, 2012 at 11:19 PM

It is a fair question.

Personally I find the report credible because

(1) there are other radar operators in the region (Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and possibly Qatar) who could confirm or refute the alleged locations of the Iranian aircraft.

(2) Similarly, 16 km off the coast of Kuwait, there would potentially be boats at sea that would hear (or not hear) gunfire.

(3) I can’t think of a scenario that would make such a deceit worthwhile given the ease with which bits of it could be refuted or argued about.

(4) It fits with the hypothesis I outlined in my 4:33 AM post, above.

My reason for thinking this is my long-held hypothesis that the Iranians are trying to provoke an attack on themselves because such an attack will give them victim status that will greatly facilitate their long-term goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.

My guess, therefore, is that the Iranians expect Mr Obama and his colleagues to be more passive than Mr Romney and his colleagues.

Your government lies to you constantly. Why do you believe this? Is it because you want to believe it?

Dante on November 8, 2012 at 11:19 PM

To spite you? ;)…

The Iranian jets pursued the drone for a short period before giving up…

If true then Israel should get every plane in their nation in the air towards Iran right now; F16′s, Mysteres, Hornets, Piper Cubs, Biplanes, those rubber-band powered prop toys, balsa gliders, everything.

Bishop on November 8, 2012 at 9:03 PM

rOFLMAO :)

I’m thinking targeting radar and a Sidewinder missile or two. Wouldn’t it be sweet. I visualize headlines… “US Drone Fired On, Blasts Two Iranian Fighters From Sky” I visualize a Predator with two silouettes of Iranian fighters painted on its nose. So sweet.

As they say, it is easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission, especially with That Person in the White House.

Your government lies to you constantly. Why do you believe this? Is it because you want to believe it?

But beyond the operational question about platform use, there’s the political question of how hard we take it when someone menaces our drone, and how much we simply give up on because “it’s only a drone.” It’s the point of drones that they’re not manned, but if the operating environment is non-permissive, that point has, if you will, no geopolitical home. There’s nothing conventional that we do about this stuff.

Exit question: if we flee and lodge a protest when Iran shoots at our drone, what will we do if China menaces our satellite? It’s unmanned, after all. It’just a bunch of inanimate material flung into space.

J.E. Dyer on November 8, 2012 at 10:08 PM

It’s an interesting question that has to be sorted out as part of our evolution to unmanned ‘stuff’. Eventually we will have B-2 comparable unmanned bombers and unmanned submarines. Is destroying one less an act of war because it’s unmanned?

God help us, cause it really doesn’t look like anyone in the Obamanation Administration has the slight idea what strategy or tactics are, that is providing that they aren’t actual Manchurian candidates.

SWalker on November 8, 2012 at 10:32 PM

At some point, if it goes as I fear it will vis a vis Iran, and the ultimate cratering of our non-nuke “policy”, the operational flag officers may well crack down on the political ones and Obama himself. And, you know what, if it gets to that, I don’t have a problem with it.
Our military, the real military, is the only thing left standing anymore between tyranny and liberty. It was such from the beginning, and it is today.

Here’s the real question: Why’d Iran fire on it?

They also didn’t intend to hit it. Why give Obama any chance to actually shoot down an Iranian plan and act tough just before the election.

They simply tested Obama to confirm their hypothesis that he is weak and impotent.

If Obama says before the election that Iran fired on a US drone, and admits that nothing was done to retaliate, they get the bonus of humiliating a US president without too much of a risk of him losing the election.
> They can anticipate that the chances that Obama would get reelected by by the useful idiots who are liberals in this country exceeded the chance of Romney getting elected. (What would Romney do if he was elected anyway? Nothing… he wouldn’t be able to address anything until after he was inaugurated… & by then it would be old news.)

If Obama hides the fact that Iran fired on a US drone until after the election, this gives Iran more flexibility to be provocative, without worrying as much about retaliation… and that the US media would kiss Obama’s ass to cover it up… just like Benghazi.

Iran wins either way. They know that they have the ability to poke at the US, which to them is now only a paper tiger – who else is saying this? Al Qaida.

If US intervention is simply now defined as a harsh statement of disapproval vs some bombing at its worst (e.g. Libya). Seeing that the US Ambassador to Libya was so easily killed, and that resulted in absolutely NO retaliation, and left good men fighting alone to die without support.

Iran is quite comfortable pushing the limits with Hezbollah & the occasional missile fired at a drone or patrolling US plane. Remember, Obama did nothing during the Iranian Green Revolution, and currently is doing nothing in Syria – where Iran actually has troops.

Regarding Afghanistan, as the “Commander-in-Chief” of US armed forces, he is allowing troops on the ground to be murdered by the Afghans they trained – again without retaliation. The “Pussy-in Chief” was even so stupid as to telegraph when US troops would be out of Afghanistan, so there would be no US retaliation from their far eastern flank. So why should they worry?

Yep. If Obama rolls over for this, Iran has actually gotten a big bang for her bottom dollar. Iran risked as little as she could get away with. If the endstate is “US changes operating profile,” that’s some of the cheapest, most significant information ever established for those who hate truth, justice, and the American way.

J.E. Dyer on November 8, 2012 at 10:25 PM

God help us, cause it really doesn’t look like anyone in the Obamanation Administration has the slight idea what strategy or tactics are, that is providing that they aren’t actual Manchurian candidates.

Tip o’ the hat to Zell Miller.

TXUS on November 8, 2012 at 10:18 PM

SWalker on November 8, 2012 at 10:18 PM

Yep. If Obama rolls over for this, Iran has actually gotten a big bang for her bottom dollar. Iran risked as little as she could get away with. If the endstate is “US changes operating profile,” that’s some of the cheapest, most significant information ever established for those who hate truth, justice, and the American way.

But beyond the operational question about platform use, there’s the political question of how hard we take it when someone menaces our drone, and how much we simply give up on because “it’s only a drone.” It’s the point of drones that they’re not manned, but if the operating environment is non-permissive, that point has, if you will, no geopolitical home. There’s nothing conventional that we do about this stuff.

Exit question: if we flee and lodge a protest when Iran shoots at our drone, what will we do if China menaces our satellite? It’s unmanned, after all. It’just a bunch of inanimate material flung into space.

J.E. Dyer on November 8, 2012 at 10:08 PM

And the biggest problem we have right now, is that their is nobody in the Obama Administration capable of grasping the tactical implications of exactly what you are describing. If we cease drone overflights for the mission track covering the geography in question, Iran has then strategically outmaneuvered us and created an denial of information zone.

In surrendering that tactical advantage to Iran it sends a signal to china that they can also employ similar tactics in their theaters of operation. From a strategic and tactical point of view that is a very dangerous situation to find ourselves in.

Exit question: if we flee and lodge a protest when Iran shoots at our drone, what will we do if China menaces our satellite? It’s unmanned, after all. It’just a bunch of inanimate material flung into space.

J.E. Dyer on November 8, 2012 at 10:08 PM

Precisely why, I think, we shuttered down on this incident. However, we are dealing with a military/diplomatic matrix with this WH that would take Houdini or, perhaps, Rainman, to divine.