http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/1/183018/1527
"We Are Going To Hit Iran. Bigtime"
by Maccabee
Sat Sep 01, 2007 at 03:50:24 PM PDT
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 begining 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
whatever 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."
Dan Scanlan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.coolhanduke.com
EPK: http://www.sonicbids.com/DanScanlan
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious
is the first duty of intelligent men." — George Orwell
