Discussion: Amid Escalating Tensions, Iran Shot Down A U.S. Drone

OMG, this is not what we need.

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Checks up stock quotes for Northrop Grumman.

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Despite John Bolton’s best efforts to provoke a hot war with Iran, Trump continues to send verbal signals that he doesn’t have the stomach to be a wartime Commander-In-Chief (providing equivocation and vague mea culpas on behalf of Iran in the same manner as when he excuses Kim Jong Un’s behavior).

Fingers crossed that Trump’s natural aversion to real, face-to-face confrontation will head off the chickenhawk faction in the Executive Branch.

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Bolton seen dancing a jig in the West Wing in the background…

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The Beeb has a good article and brief analysis. This sucker is as big as a small airliner. I’m thinking 100 megabucks apiece, easy. Glad I don’t have to pay for them /s.

This is the first direct incident of the current crisis involving the US and Iranian militaries and is a powerful reminder of the dangers of escalation in the Gulf.
As far as the Iranians are concerned, the downing of the drone was intended to send a clear and explicit message to the Americans - “our borders are our red line” - a point underscored by the IRGC’s commander-in-chief.
So there is no doubting who shot down the US drone, an MQ-4C Triton. It is a massive aircraft with a wing-span equivalent to a small airliner. But the two sides differ as to where it happened. The Iranians say it was in their airspace; the Americans say that it was not.
According to some reports, US President Donald Trump himself is eager to dial down the tension, fearing a spillover into outright conflict. But this is just the kind of incident that could provoke just such a cycle of action and response.

The Iranians have concluded that Trump is a paper tiger. Viz. Maduro, Kim Jong Un.

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$100-$200 million each.

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https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1141659389553795072

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Unfortunately, the IRG is to Iran as Bolton is to America: not actually under anyone else’s control and hellbent on starting a war out of a mixture of ideological fervor and cynical power gaming with human lives. The two will be more than happy to dance the dance of folly and blood with each other, as long as the music is playing.

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Let me know when Iran shoots down and American civilian airliner on US airspace, that would be a crime.

Either way, because of past behavior I do believe Iran over the US about the location of the drone when shot down.

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So you’re ok with acts of war against us, as long as it doesn’t happen within our borders.

Ummmm, k. So you really believe a bunch of guys who are the sworn enemy of the US, have been for decades, over our military.

It’s one thing to be skeptical of our accounts, it’s another thing to announce that you believe the enemy’s propaganda.

Thank FSM we can now use coal instead of gasoline for our cars. That Donnie, always planning ahead.

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If we’re going to get upset and go war over a $100 million dollar drone, (btw, no one was hurt and its still unclear if it was in Iranian air space, not to mention tRump’s gov’t does tend to lie), I think people should be equally upset that taxpayers have spent over $100 million dollars on tRump’s trips to Mar-A-Loco for his golf outings so far. So we should probably get our money back for that first if we’re so perturbed.

tRump’s Warhawks are just looking for a pretext at this point to go to war with Iran and everybody and their brother knows it. It’s as predictable with these morons he has put in charge of our foreign policy as are tRump’s ignorant comments that come out of his mouth daily. When you act belligerent all day long expect others to act belligerent right back at ya.

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I’m no fan of the revolutionary guard, but how does this make sense: “Either way, the strike is just the latest in a string of what the U.S. sees as Iranian acts of aggression”?

How would their shooting down a US drone in Iranian airspace represent an Iranian act of aggression, when clearly our having a drone over their airspace would constitute a US act of aggression?

Our government has no credibility any longer so it seems to me the claim that the drone was over international waters is quite possibly a lie - or that it was over Iranian airspace but the SAM didn’t reach drone until it had exited Iranian airspace. I don’t know what to to think about the attacks on the two oil tankers last week, but I am unable to believe anything our government says - just as I didn’t believe the lies the neocons told us about Iraq in the run-up to the invasion.

Bolton and Pompeo and, probably, certain elements within our military are trying to get us into a war with Iran. That would be insanity.

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How is Iran going to shoot down an American civilian airliner over US airspace? They don’t have the capability to do that.

Do you see any Iranian naval assets parked off our shores?

I am sure you are OK with this because, the dead were not american and it was a “mistake”. The reason the Vincennes was so trigger happy was because they were playing games and entering the Iranian territorial waters just to provoke and incident.

Lets see, the Maine in Habana bay, of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the mobile chem-war labs. In all those cases “our” accounts turned out to be total Bulshit, and our sworn enemies “propaganda” the truth.

And by the way, have you noticed that now that Bolton and Pompeo have their attention elsewhere, there have been no more blackouts or border incidents in Venezuela? The grassroots “interim” president just faded away.

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The Guard insists that it shot the drone down in Iranian airspace; the U.S. contends that it was flying over an international zone in the Strait of Hormuz.

What does it say that NOBODY BELIEVES THE US IN THIS? Not our Allies, not the International Community, not over 60% of the US population.

We have no illusions about the Iranians and their methods, but we don’t trust our own Government any more because of Bush the Lesser and now Cheatolini.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me 3 times, I must be a Conservative Republican.”

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Donald Trump: The Scut Farkus of international relations.

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At least the IRG are willing to die themselves, chickenhawk Bolton is counting on others doing the dying.

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In the same vein, there’s something fishy about the Fort Sumter narrative…

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