Boyz & Their Toyz ~ & One Good Game Of Liar's Poker

Has anybody else been following the recent news about tension between the Brits & Iranis over the disputed territorial waterways & just counting the days until Bushco pounces on it as the excuse its been wishing for?

Comes news today that we didn't have to wait very long. (Title bar.)

The Neocons have had it in for Iran since at least 1997, with their plans for a pax Americana in the New American Century, enthusiastically taken up by Bushco. Might as well start one's campaign for global domination in the oil-rich Mideast, so we don't run out of the fuel we'll need to drive all that military power.

SO. It's no big secret that the very idea of WWIII in the Mideast sets the neocon glands to salivating, & George & Cheney have made no bones about it.

Recently Iran was sanctioned by the U.N. for refusing to suspend its nuclear ambitions. Shortly thereafter Iranian Prez & madman Ahmadinejad pronounces U.N.'s actions "illegal."

Last Friday Iran's Revolutionary Guard captured 15 British sailors in the long-disputed waterway between Iraq & Iran while the Brits were doing the UN's business. The Iranis say that the Brits were in Iranian waters;

the Brits say they were in Iraqi waters.

File Photo: HMS Cornwall

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/25/AR2007032500368.html

And today:

"ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS -- American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.

"The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.

"While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning.
'If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you better be careful about trying to intimidate others,' said Capt. Bradley Johanson, commander of the Stennis.

"'Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they that they have done,' he added.
...
"F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft. A second task force with the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower also took part in the drills.

"'These maneuvers demonstrate our flexibility and capability to respond to threats to maritime security,' said Navy Lt. John Perkins, 32, of Louisville, Ky., as the Stennis cruised about 80 miles off the United Arab Emirates after entering the Persian Gulf overnight.

"'They're showing we can keep the maritime environment safe and the vital link to the global economy open.'

"At the headquarters of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl said the maneuvers would last several days. He said U.S. warships would stay out of Iran's territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off the Iranian coast.

"None of America's naval coalition partners in the region joined the maneuvers."



File photo, DOD
Aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis
dwarfs the Pearl Harbor Memorial, Honolulu, HI