Please pass this on to everyone you know.
Hajja Romi
'We Are Going To
Hit Iran...Bigtime'
Maccabee
9-2-7
I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and
staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal
Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going
to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking
are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized,
and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so
forth.
I asked her why she is telling me this.
Her answer was really amazing...
She started in the Marines and after 8 years her term was up. She had served on
a smaller Marine carrier, and found out through a friend knew there was an
opening for a junior grade LSO in a training position on a supercarrier. She
used the reference and the information and applied for a transfer to the United
States Navy. Since she had experience landing F-18Cs and Cobra Gunships, and an
unblemished combat record, she was ratcheted into the job, successfully
changing from the Marines to the Navy. Her role is still aligned with the
Marines since she generally is assigned to liason with the Marine units
deploying off her carrier group.
Like most Marines and former Marines, she is largely apolitical. The fact is,
most Marines are trigger pullers and most trigger pullers could care less who
the President is. They simply want to be the tip of the sword when it comes to
defending the country. She voted once in her life and otherwise was always in
some forward post on the water during election season.
Something is wrong with the Navy and the Marines in her view. Always ready to
go in harms way, Marines rarely ever question unless it's a matter of tactics
or honor. But something seems awry. Junior and senior officers are starting to
grumble, roll their eyes in the hallways. The strain of deployments is
beginning to hit every jot and tittle of the Marines and it's beginning to seep
into the daily conversation of Marines and Naval officers in command decision.
"I know this will sound crazy coming from a Naval officer", she said. "But
we're all just waiting for this administration to end. Things that happen at
the senior officer level seem more and more to happen outside of the purview of
XOs and other officers who typically have a say-so in daily combat and flight
operations. Today, orders just come down from the mountaintop and there's no
questioning. In fact, there is no discussing it. I have seen more than one
senior commander disappear and then three weeks later we find out that he has
been replaced. That's really weird. It's also really weird because everyone who
has disappeared has questioned whether or not we should be staging a massive
attack on Iran."
"We're not stupid. Most of the members of the fleet read well enough to know
what is going on world-wise. We also realize that anyone who has any doubts is
in danger of having a long military career yanked out from under them. Keep in
mind that most of the people I serve with are happy to be a part of the global
war on terror. It's just that the touch points are what we see since we are the
ones out here who are supposedly implementing this grand strategy. But when you
liason with administration officials who don't know that Iranians don't speak
Arabic and have no idea what Iranians live like, then you start having second
thoughts about whether these Administration officials are even competent."
I asked her about the attack, how limited and so forth.
"I don't think it's limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn
Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden,
like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens
until after it happens. And the consequences...whatever the consequences...they
will have to be lived with. I am sure if my father knew I was telling someone
in a news organization that we were about to launch a supposedly secret attack
that it would be treason. But something inside me tells me to tell it anyway."
I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.
"I have become cynical only recently. I also don't believe anyone will be able
to stop this. Bush has become something of an Emperor. He will give the
command, and cruise missiles will fly and aircraft will fly and people will
die, and yet few of us here are really able to cobble together a great
explanation of why this is a good idea. Of course many of us can give you the
4H Club lecture on democracy in the Mid East. But if you asked any of the
flight officers whether they have a clear idea of what the goal of this strike
is, your answer would sound like something out of a think tank policy paper.
But it's not like Kosovo or when we relieved the tsunami victims. There
everyone could tell you in a sentence what we were here doing."
"That's what's missing. A real sense of purpose. What's missing is the answer
to what the hell are we doing out here threatening this country with all this
power? Last night in the galley, an ensign asked what right do we have to tell
a sovereign nation that they can't build a nuke. I mean the table got EF Hutton
quiet. Not so much because the man was asking a question that was off culture.
But that he was asking a good question. In fact, the discussion actually
followed afterwards topside where someone in our group had to smoke a
cigarette. The discussion was intelligent but also in lowered voices. It's like
we aren't allowed to ask the questions that we always ask before combat. It's
almost as if the average seaman or soldier is doing all the policy work."
She had to hang up. She left by telling me that she believes the attack is a
done deal. "It's only a matter of time before their orders come and they will
be sent to station and told to go to Red Alert. She said they were already
practicing traps, FARP and FAST." (Trapping is the act of catching the tension
wires when landing on the carrier, FARP is Fleet Air Combat Maneuvering
Readiness Program- practice dogfighting- and FAST is Fleet Air Superiority
Training).
She seemed lost. The first time in my life I have ever heard her sound off
rhythm, or unsure of why she is doing something. She knows that there is
something rotten in the Naval Command and she, like many of her associates are
just hoping that the election brings in someone new, some new situation, or
something.
"Yes. We're gong to hit Iran, bigtime. Whatever political discussion that are
going in is window dressing and perhaps even a red herring. I see what's going
on below deck here in the hangars and weapons bays. And I have a sick feeling
about how it's all going to turn out."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/1/183018/1527
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