Maccabee: ‘We Are Going To Hit Iran…Bigtime’

2007-09-14

Richard Moore

Original source URL:
http://rense.com/general78/we.htm

'We Are Going To Hit Iran...Bigtime'
Maccabee (http://maccabee.dailykos.com/)
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 discussions that are 
going on 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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