Shek

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"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

S-2

"This is a VERY carefully-schooled officer. There's no slip of the tongue here. No phrase "out of turn". Note the details as described by the general. A nice synopsis and refresher of the issue surrounding Iranian 'interference'".

My comments to Buu a few days ago while referencing this same article. Petraeus mentions meeting twice with the Iranians about this issue. I also recall Crocker mentioning meetings together with the Iranians and Iraqis that were quite acrimonious.

I guess I see these actions as acts of war against Iraq- though little that they can do by themselves. So too America. Our troops are targeted daily by the Iranians while performing their U.N- mandated duties. It's conceivable, though politically unlikely, that Iranian perfidy in Iraq might justify an overt and visible American response (have to work on shoe-horning those nuke targets under that agenda, hmmm... )

One thing about "show me"-it's a line in the sand. Credibility is at stake if crossed. What that entails from Petraeus' perspective nobody knows, but I'd have to believe that he's something meaningful in mind should it continue, seemingly the case.

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"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski

Simullacrum

Guys what makes you think that SOF, have not been operating in Iran for some time now, obtaining Intel.???

Feanor

Question, what happens if the Iranian border guard tries to stop the Brits from crossing one day? And when the gun battle (on Iranian soil ensues) the persians call in air support?

Officer of Engineers

What air support?

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Chimo

Feanor

Iran Air Force

Frogfoots?

Officer of Engineers

You do realize that most Iranian AF training consists of flying JANES flight simulators.

Feanor

Does that make a big difference, when you're doing ground-attack on targets with no air support or mobile SAMs?

Ophir

It might consist mostly of the forementioned activity, but it's hardly impossible for Iran to get several Frogroots and Hinds airborne, find the battlefield within their territory and attack the infiltrators -- unless prevented from doing it by the Coalition aircraft, that is.

Officer of Engineers

It makes a big difference in finding the target, identifying the target, and then hitting the target. These guys are experts in stealth.

Also, Iranian ground infantry had no training in calling in air support. Hell, they don't even speak the same wavelength, let alone the same military lingo. Chances are more than strong that Iranian aircrafts will hit their own people more often than 22SAS. Why? Because they can see their own people (and if you think they know it's their own people, think again).

astralis

col yu,

how reliant have the iranians been on air support in the past? i'd imagine they're more artillery-based these days seeing as how much of their air power disappeared as spare parts began disappearing.

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Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Feanor

The iranian airforce has been confirmed to have Floggers (27's), Flankers, Fulcrums, Fencers and Frogfoots. There are also unconfirmed reports of a foxhound deal between Russia and Iran, done through Syria. While their tomcats and fantoms are pretty much scrap metal, they majorly revitalized their airforce in the 90s.

Ophir

Undoubtedly.

They have no training in close air support at all? Amazing. I would've though that the Iran-Iraq war did taught them a thing or two; moreover, they have a significant number of Russian fighter-bombers and helicopter gunships. Have they simply overlooked this important aspect of modern war?

Mmm... Won't visua signals, such as flares, help the Iranian side?

Officer of Engineers

They can't afford to. CAS requires air superiority and the planes just hovering doing nothing but waiting for bellycrawlers to give them something to hit. In Afghanistan, we have entire sorties that does nothing but wait around for the ground to hit something. That is expensive in both fuel and wear and tear.

Those Russian fighter-bombers are tasked with ground attack missions, ie, the Iranians know what they want to hit before they took off. And that is usually a fixed, identifiable target.

If they trained for such a thing and they don't. The Iranian Army does not even use the same radio frequencies as the AF.

VarSity

We should encourage Iran to try and bomb the SAS, maybe one of them can get a stinger kill ala the Falklands :D