Iran’s Death-star nears completion

by utilaeastwind | February 26, 2012 at 02:48 pm

616 views | 4 Recommendations | 11 comments

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been very busy working to insure that threats of closing the Persian Gulf are not empty. In western media you hear that Iran would use “go-fast” suicide boats to scatter and smash into unsuspecting American Navy ships as done with the USS Cole in the year 2000.

However, the reality of Iran’s strategy and capability are quite different than we are lead to believe. Right in the center of the Persian Gulf Iran is building veritable Death Stars that will enable them to close-off the Persian Gulf indefinitely.

The Tunb islands are strategically located in the center of the Persian Gulf and have been in the possession of Iran since November 30th 1971 when Iranian Naval Forces invaded the islands. Previously, The Tunb Islands were a British Protectorate within the Trucial States.

Under the Trucial Treaty the sheikhs agreed not to dispose of any territory except to the United Kingdom and not to enter into relationships with any foreign government other than the United Kingdom without its consent. In return, the British promised to protect the Trucial Coast from all aggression by sea and to help in case of land attack. -wikipedia

The British terminated the Treaty with the Trucial States one day after the invasion by Iran on December 1st 1971, paving the way for the United Arab Emirates to be formed the a day later on December 2, 1971 , minus the Tunb Islands.

The UAE does claim these islands as their own and has made many complaints to international bodies. But, Iran is of the opinion that the Tunb Islands are an integral part of Iran and have historical arguments of possession dating back hundreds of years.

As a result of the conquest of these Islands, Iran now effectively owns the deep water channel which provides access to the Persian Gulf and could argue a legitimate and legal closure of the channel under international law claiming the islands as within their Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Waters.

Today the Tunb Islands are seeing aggressive military development. Marine facilities, massive underground bunkers, trenches and artillery batteries dominate the scenery. From these two small islands Iran could indefinitely halt the supply of oil via the Strait of Hormuz or launch attacks on Arab States using Trench Warfare tactics.

With the construction of these Twin Death Stars it is shown that The Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention in giving up its control of the Islands and indeed plans to be ready to act militarily should it be necessary.

The Google Earth images provided within this article show these are heavily garrisoned islands. The question is what lies under the surface. Underground and undersea construction could add the the island defense and attack capability and effectivly change the balance of power in the Middle East.

Time will tell.

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batvette

at 02:58 on February 27th, 2012

Death Star or Manginot Line?

You posit that Iran would be within her rights under the spirit of international law to close the straits. Yet it is the body of international law members who have condemned Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. They certainly are not going to back Iran as some kind of victim if this escalates because Iran wants US warships out of the Gulf because they are part of enforcement of sanctions on Iraq, that have been put in place by the international community.

More importantly closing the straits denies other nations the right of passage for their exports, which is guaranteed under international treaty. Iran is signatory to some but not all.

http://www.payvand.com/news/11/dec/1216.html

In effect if Iran closes the strait it's as if they are declaring war upon the entire world, which is counterproductive toward why they'd close it in the first place.

utilaeastwind

at 03:56 on February 27th, 2012

Maginot Line or Iwo Jima?

It would be likely that Iran would allow ships from many countries to pass the Tunb Islands without issue. I am sure that a Chinese Supertanker is not on the Iranian menu.

Either way, the existence of these hardened military bases in the center of the Persian Gulf makes it clear that Iran is preparing for military conflict.

With the Tunb islands fortified and armed the Persian Gulf is under the control of Iran.

batvette

at 08:36 on February 28th, 2012

Those won't be bunkers, those will be tombs. Whichever the case they won't be a formidable way of blocking shipping. Our minesweepers will clear the channel, and 2 carrier groups will control the skies. Anything foolish enough to pop up will be eliminated.

Using oil as a weapon on us is not something we will tolerate. Even (relative) pacifist Jimmy Carter was pretty forward about that.

utilaeastwind

at 11:10 on February 28th, 2012

That's the Spirit! Ahmadinejad could not have said it better himself.

batvette

at 14:50 on February 28th, 2012

I joined the US Navy in 1979 when it looked like war was coming with Iran, I wanted to be the guy who painted "to the Ayatollah of Assaholla, with love!" on the nose of the first bomb to drop on Teheran. Really bugged the crap out of me how he was there on my TV talking about death to America, the great Satan.

But really, watch even the hard left in America will support a conflict with Iran if they start ****ing around and gasoline hits $6 or more a gallon.

We've kept that channel open for decades, don't expect that to change.

Iran's kind of a special case, they have a recent history of uncivilized behavior.

Storming an embassy and taking diplomats hostage, that just shows they want to be treated like animals. "nationalizing" their petroleum industry and expelling BP, whose investors built Iran's petroleum infrastructure. Not exactly a good way to attract foreign investors in your country. And financing Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

utilaeastwind

at 17:33 on February 28th, 2012

It's terrible the way all countries and armies take advantage of their youth. I would have died for my hockey team when I was young.

dulce et decorum est pro patria mori... (the Wilfred Owen version)

batvette

at 01:57 on March 1st, 2012

Well just imagine how overpopulated the planet would be now without all the wars. Remember, those 63 million killed in WW2 would all have had offspring, who'd have offspring, and so on and so on. You could say it's all by design, but it's probably just the way things must be.

utilaeastwind

at 09:40 on March 2nd, 2012

That is the truth of it.

The only problem for the western world is that a combination of birth control and Woman's Liberation has created a relative deficit in population to offer the Gods of War.

While most of the world is still in Go forth and multiply mode, the west has been smothering the unborn in the womb. You can call it Family Planning, Wildlife Management or Human Sacrifice depending on your political/theological orientation.

I don't think that the world is anywhere near critical population levels. It is more that the Masters of the planet are guilty of bad management.

batvette

at 09:16 on March 3rd, 2012

I don't think that the world is anywhere near critical population levels.

The way resources are being managed I think we're past it.
It is more that the Masters of the planet are guilty of bad management.
Without going into the realm of conspiracy theories that that implies, (that a handful of people behind the scenes could really control man's destiny with such authority) it sounds like you might be thinking of some one world government socialist authoritarian state where each person's needs are provided for yet their personal achievement to the point of greed and avarice is also prevented. Everything is controlled or managed by an efficient central power who knows the best way to do it and what's best for us.
Sure you could squeeze more humans on the same piece of dirt but that's not living.
Western industrialized nations are seeing lower birth rates because we don't want to burden the world with excess offspring. We also have the net of social systems to care for us in our old age so don't need to have 5-6 kids to provide for us.
I do believe the biggest factor is an economic one, proven true by the phenomenon of spikes in the birth rate in any area of an industrialized nation when an event of a widespread power outage occurs.
We have so many things to occupy our time with that people in developing nations and cultures don't. Cut the power and the only thing to do is sit down and talk with your significant other, well pretty soon you're getting horizontal.

utilaeastwind

at 12:15 on March 3rd, 2012

When you state that...
"Western industrialized nations are seeing lower birth rates because we don't want to burden the world with excess offspring. We also have the net of social systems to care for us in our old age so don't need to have 5-6 kids to provide for us."
In these comments sound allot you are describing a...
"world government socialist authoritarian state where each person's needs are provided for yet their personal achievement to the point of greed and avarice is also prevented."

batvette

at 08:34 on March 4th, 2012

1984.

A title of a George Orwell novel which detailed a deplorable authoritarian state. .

and

A title of the last studio release by rock group Van Halen with singer David Lee Roth, after their US Festival performance when they had reached a peak of decadence and debauchery.

somewhere in the middle is reality.