“The entire lake will become a killing field…the Gulf will run red with American blood.”
The following article is an edited and updated version by Lasha Darkmoon of a much longer essay by military specialist Mark Gaffney. Its timeliness and topicality can hardly be exaggerated. Original source here. (Editor)
The following paper is so shocking that, after preparing the initial draft, I didn’t want to believe it myself.
Don’t be surprised if it makes you squirm.
Perhaps we can still find a way to save our nation and the world from disaster.
The United States has been eclipsed in an important area of military technology. The qualitative edge is now being wielded by others, including the Chinese. A weapon for which the US Navy currently has no defense, the SS-N-22 Sunburn, has now been built.
I am not suggesting that America’s status of lone world Superpower has been eclipsed. I am simply saying that a new global balance of power has emerged, in which other individual states may, on occasion, achieve “an asymmetric advantage” over the US.
This has now been achieved.
I was shocked when I first learned the facts about these Russian-made cruise missiles.
The problem is that so many of us suffer from two common misconceptions. The first follows from our assumption that Russia is militarily weak, as a result of the breakup of the old Soviet system. Actually, this is accurate, but it does not reflect the complexities of the situation.
Although the Russian navy continues to rust in port, and the Russian army is in disarray, in certain key areas Russian technology is actually superior to our own. And nowhere is this truer than in the vital area of anti-ship cruise missile technology, where the Russians hold at least a ten-year lead over the US.
Many years ago, Soviet planners gave up trying to match the US Navy, ship for ship, gun for gun, dollar for dollar. The Soviets simply could not compete with the high levels of US spending required to build up and maintain a huge naval armada. They shrewdly adopted an alternative approach based on strategic defense.
They searched for weaknesses, and sought relatively inexpensive ways to exploit those weaknesses.
The Soviets succeeded.
They succeeded by developing several supersonic anti-ship missiles, one of which, the SS-N-22 Sunburn, has been called “the most lethal missile in the world today.”
AIRCRAFT CARRIER BEING ATTACKED BY MISSILE
Today, Russian missiles are a growth industry generating much-needed cash for Russia, with many billions in combined sales to India, China, Viet Nam, Cuba, and also Iran. In the near future this dissemination of advanced technology is likely to present serious challenges to the US. Some have even warned that the US Navy’s largest ships, the massive carriers, have now become floating death traps, and should for this reason be mothballed.
The Sunburn missile has never seen use in combat, to my knowledge, which probably explains why its fearsome capabilities are not more widely recognized. Other cruise missiles have been used, of course, on several occasions, and with devastating results.
The 1987 surprise attack on the Stark exemplifies the dangers posed by anti-ship cruise missiles. And the dangers are much more serious in the case of the Sunburn, whose specs leave the subsonic Exocet in the dust. Not only is the Sunburn much larger and faster, it has far greater range and a superior guidance system. Those who have witnessed its performance trials invariably come away stunned.
The Sunburn can deliver a 200-kiloton nuclear payload, or a 750-pound conventional warhead, within a range of 100 miles, more than twice the range of the Exocet.
The Sunburn combines a Mach 2.1 speed (two times the speed of sound) with a flight pattern that hugs the deck and includes “violent end maneuvers” to elude enemy defenses.
The missile was specifically designed to defeat the US Aegis radar defense system.
The Sunburn’s combined supersonic speed and payload size produce tremendous kinetic energy on impact, with devastating consequences for ship and crew. A single one of these missiles can sink a large warship, yet costs considerably less than a fighter jet.
WHAT AMERICAN SHIPS WILL HAVE TO FACE IN THE PERSIAN GULF
The US Navy’s only plausible defense against a robust weapon like the Sunburn missile is to detect the enemy’s approach well ahead of time. For this purpose US AWACs radar planes, assigned to each naval battle group, are kept aloft on a rotating schedule. The planes “see” everything within two hundred miles of the fleet, and are complemented with intelligence from orbiting satellites.
But US naval commanders operating in the Persian Gulf face serious challenges that are unique to the littoral, i.e., coastal, environment.
A glance at a map shows why.
The Gulf is nothing but a large lake, with one narrow outlet, and most of its northern shore, which is Iran, consists of mountainous terrain that affords a commanding tactical advantage over ships operating in Gulf waters.
The rugged northern shore makes for easy concealment of coastal defenses, such as mobile missile launchers, and it also makes their detection problematic.
The Sunburn’s amazing accuracy was demonstrated not long ago in a live test staged at sea by the Chinese and observed by US spy planes.
Not only did the Sunburn missile destroy the dummy target ship, it scored a perfect bull’s eye, hitting the crosshairs of a large “X” mounted on the ship’s bridge.
The US Navy has never faced anything in combat as formidable as the Sunburn missile. But this will surely change if the US and Israel decide to wage a so-called preventive war against Iran to destroy its nuclear infrastructure.
Storm clouds have been darkening over the Gulf for many months.
In recent years Israel upgraded its air force with a new fleet of long-range F-15 fighter-bombers, and even more recently took delivery of 5,000 bunker-buster bombs from the US weapons that many observers think are intended for use against Iran.
The arming for war has been matched by threats. Israeli officials have declared repeatedly that they will not allow the Mullahs to develop nuclear power, not even reactors to generate electricity for peaceful use. Their threats are particularly worrisome, because Israel has a long history of pre-emptive war.
The world has arrived at a fateful crossroads.
(See my 1989 book Dimona: The Third Temple?)
If a showdown over Iran develops in the coming months, the man who could hold the outcome in his hands will be thrust upon the world stage. That man, like him or hate him, is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Be assured that the Russian leader has not forgotten the humiliating defeat Ronald Reagan inflicted upon the old Soviet state.
This very night, as he sips his cognac, what is Vladimir Putin thinking? Is he perhaps thinking about the perverse symmetries of history? If so, he may also be wondering how a truly great nation like the United States could be so blind and stupid as to allow another state, Israel, to control its foreign policy—especially in a region as vital and volatile as the Middle East.
Does anyone really believe that Vladimir Putin will hesitate to seize a rare opportunity to change the course of history, and, in the process, exact sweet revenge for the humiliations of the past?
Surely Putin understands the terrible dimensions of the trap into which the US has blundered, thanks to the Israelis and their neo-conservative supporters in Washington who lobbied so vociferously for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, against all friendly and expert advice, and who even now beat the drums of war against Iran.
Would Putin be wrong to conclude that the US will never leave the region unless it is defeated militarily?
Let us pray that the US sailors who are unlucky enough to be on duty in the Persian Gulf when the shooting starts can escape the fate of the Roman army at Cannae.
The odds will be heavily against them, because they will face the same type of danger: complete envelopment.
The US ships in the Gulf will already have come within range of the Sunburn missiles and the even more-advanced SS-NX-26 Yakhont missiles, also Russian-made (speed: Mach 2.9; range: 180 miles) deployed by the Iranians along the Gulf’s northern shore. Every US ship will be exposed and vulnerable.
When the Iranians spring the trap, the entire lake will become a killing field.
Try and imagine it if you can: barrage after barrage of Exocet-class missiles, which the Iranians are known to possess in the hundreds, as well as the unstoppable Sunburn and Yakhont missiles.
The US Navy will come under fire even if the US does not participate in the first so-called surgical raids on Iran’s nuclear sites, that is, even if Israel goes it alone.
It will hardly matter if Washington gives the green light, or is dragged into the conflict by a recalcitrant Israel. Either way, the result will be the same. The Iranians will interpret US acquiescence as complicity. In any event, they will understand that the real fight is with the Americans.
The Iranians will be entirely within their rights to counterattack in self-defense.
Most of the world will see it this way, and will support them. They will not support America.
America and Israel will be viewed as the aggressors, even as the unfortunate US sailors in harm’s way become cannon fodder.
In the Gulf’s shallow and confined waters, evasive maneuvers will be difficult at best, and escape impossible.
Even if US planes control the skies over the battlefield, the sailors caught in the net below will be hard-pressed to survive. The Gulf will run red with American blood.
From here, it only gets worse.
Armed with their Russian-supplied cruise missiles, the Iranians will close the lake’s only outlet, the strategic Strait of Hormuz, cutting off the trapped and dying Americans from help and rescue.
The US fleet massing in the Indian Ocean will stand by helplessly, unable to enter the Gulf to assist survivors.
With enough anti-ship missiles, the Iranians can halt tanker traffic through Hormuz for weeks, even months. With the flow of oil from the Gulf curtailed, the price of a barrel of crude will skyrocket on the world market.
Within days, the global economy will begin to grind to a halt.
Despite the increasingly hostile international mood, elements of the US media will spin this crisis very differently here at home, in a way that is sympathetic to Israel.
Members of Congress will rise to speak in the House and Senate, rallying to Israel’s defense, while blaming the victim of the attack.
Iran will be to blame, though Iran did nothing except defend itself.
Fundamentalist Christian talk show hosts will proclaim the historic fulfillment of biblical prophecy in our time. They will call upon the Jews of Israel to accept Jesus into their hearts. Meanwhile, they will urge the president to nuke the evil empire of Islam.
Friends, we must work together to prevent such a catastrophe.
We must stop the next Middle East war before it starts.
_________________________________________________________
Mark Gaffney’s first book, Dimona: The Third Temple? (1989), was a pioneering study of Israel’s nuclear weapons program. He has since published numerous important articles about the Middle East with emphasis on nuclear proliferation issues.
What a sensationalist Ms Darkmoon is! She really knows how to lay it on thick with a trowel! She has taken a relatively sober 5000-word article by military expert Frank Gaffney and cut it down to just under 2000 words — in the process making the whole article read like a piece of sensational tabloid journalism!
Hey, I’m not complaining.
All the words here are Gaffney’s. It’s the way Darkmoon has edited the original, deleting all the the heavy dull bits and leaving behind only the sensational nuggets.
She has shortened Gaffney’s long paragraphs, making them crisp and more manageable. Much easier to read and digest in a single sitting. And she has put in some stunning pictures that illustrate the text beautifully.
So, thank you Lasha for a most enjoyable read!
To tell you the truth, I did find Gaffney’s original rather heavy-going. And its long and cumbersome title left me cold. It was also clogged up with too many obscure technical details.
So, Gaffney ought to be pleased with this lively makeover!
@ Berenice
You are too finicky, dear. You complain needlessly about Darkmoon’s tendency for “sensationalism”. This is nonsense. Like any skilled editor, she has taken a long and diffuse piece of writing and halved its length, retaining only the bare bones or essentials.
This article is basically an exercise in anti-American propaganda. It is designed to spook America and stop it from doing its sacred duty to protect Israel from the Iranian nuclear menace.
Ruth, this article is written by an American who care about his country, by warning us what it would be like if America is dragged into fighting Israel’s dirty war. Israel who posses a large and vastly more advanced arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, make it clear years ago that it does not want to see a nuclear Iran, even if their program is only for generating electricity. Israel goal is to dominate the Middle east, steal more of its land and natural resources. Israel is #1 threat to world peace, not Iran!
Your bully of the Middle East is the only country in the Middle East that has Nukes, and is the one who is going to start WWIII. Mark my words, cousin!
Speaking of “exercise in anti-American propaganda”, the only one this observer see is propagated by Zionist owned and controlled lame stream US media, US lawmakers who worship Israel, and of course presidential candidate who act as Israel whores every time they open their mouths. Just remember what that filthy rich bastard from Loss Vegas said after he contributed 5 million dollars to Newt Gingrich campaign. He said, ” my only regret is serving in the US military and not in the Israeli army.” Not one single news organization took him to task or question his loyalty and arrogance. All these Israeli firster are the one who are engaged in disinformation campaign and anti-American propaganda that has damaged the name of the United State and ruined its image on the world stage. It is neither Mark Gaffney nor Dr. Lasha Darkmoon who spread anti-American propaganda!
It is time for you to wake up and smell the coffee, Miss Ruth.
“By the pricking of my thumbs
Something evil this way comes.”
— Shakespeare, Macbeth
The Myth of Israeli strike on Iran
On February 12, 2012 – Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of US 5th fleet told reporters at the US Navy base in Manama, Bahrain that Islamic Republic can block the Strait of Hormuz – the water artery used to transport nearly 40% of world’s crude oil by using ‘mosquitoe submarines’.
Dr. Saeb Shaath, ME political expert and author says that the so-called “Israel’s capability to attack Iran is pure science fiction. Israel cannot attack Iran without the active help of the US and its client regimes in the region, Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia as was the case Israeli attack on Iraqi nuclear reactor building in 1981 – attacks against PLO in Lebanon in 1982 and PLO headquarter in Tunisia in late 1980s and Israeli attack on Syrian factory in 2007.
“While Israel has the option of using its untested Jerichos intermediate-range ballistic missiles as surprise attack, such an attack would take 10-12 minutes to reach to Iran, leaving plenty of time for Iran to launch a counter-attack (with its long-range tested ballistic missiles). The only sane conclusion is that any military attack on Iran – aerial or otherwise – would have to materialize from its neighboring countries (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain, US-Israel controlled Iraqi Kurdistan, etc.). Iran’s strategic planners are aware of that fact,” wrote Dr. Shaath.
Iranian airforce is on record of saying that some of its ballistic missiles are aimed at its Arab neigbors which may be used as launching-pads for attacks on Iran by the US or Israel. As a warning, Iran has despatched its 18th fleet of warships in Mediterranean Sea.
Jewish professor Marjorie Cohn (Thomas Jefferson School of Law) believes that Obama should pressure Israel, not Iran to stop creating WW III in the Muslim East. Marjorie Cohn has written against the Islamic Revolution and Iran’s anti-US policy in the past. She calls herself “pro-Israel but anti-Zionist regime“.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/the-myth-of-israeli-strike-on-iran/
planes and missiles will have to contend with Russian S-300 (Iran, Syria) missile system; depending on which version, the missile’s flight speed is 5630 – 8850 kilometrs per hour and at altitude as high as any of highest-flying aircraft can operate;
the S-300′s hit ratios are 8-9 of 10
(when a targeted plane realizes it is targeted – it will be already too late)
video, info if interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT2PO3q1uBM&feature=related
http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/russian-s-300-surface-to-air-missile-system/
Underwater dangers – fastest known torpedo (555 kilometrs per hour *under water*), is the Russian “Shkval” (Iran) – no ship can evade and escape this torpedo
video
Torpille à Supercavitation: Shkval VA-111
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4tSRrMkYVg
and how many “chosenites” are now being used as human bait in the Persian gulf -awaiting blood sacrifice for benefit of the zio-beasts
Ekotecture is and always has been the answer to all these silly and destructive warring people’s lives…then no more need for the crude….
for the most part, both persian gulf and gulf of oman are 120 miles wide, the widest being from the bottom of qatar peninsula at 200 miles.
hormuz is 35 miles.
damn it, iranians can shoot bows and arrows that far and the waters are ridiculously shallow, basically mudflats.
jews know all this and are drooling at the prospect of dead sailors, dozens upon dozens of uss liberty on steroids, as if they like americans any more than palestinians.
a goy is a goy is a goy, they hate and despise them all equally, talmud urges to kill them all (“even the best goys should be killed”).
they figure, all these spineless retards in congress and fundamentalist pulpits will squeal like stuck swine for the persian blood and nukes will start raining.
except that at this point, putin will aim his own nukes (knowing that if doesn’t act now, the russian goose is cooked next) squarely at all the power-jew waterholes worldwide, from wall street to netanya to miami to zurich to marais (paris) to monaco to city of london, wherever the infernal agents of rothschilds are, all those toxic sanhedrin, edomites, oligarchs, drug+arms+misery dealers, organ peddlers, usurers, scammers, yellow bellied death squads and global pimps, corporations from hell like monsanto, goldman sachs, all the big pharma nodes in new jersey and so on.
and why wouldn’t he? he knows perfectly well that killing americans alone solves nothing, they are worth s**t to the cabal.
that will put a stop to it, c’mon biden/palin/mccain/gingrich, let’s hear you say i am a zionist first and foremost when zion is no more.
this war will be as horrible as all others, maybe more so, but it may also be the long-awaited salvation of the planet from the yoke of protocols.
and why should the world feel any sorrier for americans than they felt while pissing on the defiled bodies of the taliban warriors.
it is not as if they are defending their families, home and hearth, is it.
they are just killing and stealing for the master jew.
maybe putin figures, the time has come to bite the viper’s head off.
Eloquently put. Time for Putin to bite the viper’s head off. China also has strong teeth. Let’s hope it sinks its incisors into the Vampire’s neck.
Ooops, sorry! Got my metaphors mixed.
I should have said: Let’s hope China drives its stake through the Vampire’s heart!
NUCLEAR POLLUTION WORLD WIDE
MILLIONS OF BABIES WORLD WIDE ARE GETTING BORN DEFORMED.
PREMEDITATED MURDER.
CANCER causing Nuclear Radioactive
When is the United Nations going to place Sanctions on WAR MONGERING ISRAEL?
HAARP is a Weapon of MASS DESTRUCTION.
The JEW owned HAARP has polluted the whole world for 1000 years with extremely dangerous CANCER causing Nuclear Radioactive materials.
There is only ONE group of TERRORISTS in the World today and they are the WAR MONGERING JEWS.
TERRORIST??????? USA “PUPPET” OSAMA BEN LADEN DIED 2001_12_13
The JEW Trillionaire Bankers are going to use HAARP to murder millions of people worldwide.
PREMEDITATED MURDER.
ISRAEL has more than 400 NUCLEAR BOMBS, weapons of mass destruction.
When is the United Nations going to send Nuclear Bomb inspectors to ISRAEL?
When is the United Nations going to confiscate all the Nuclear Bombs from ISRAEL?
When is the United Nations going to place Sanctions on WAR MONGERING ISRAEL?
When is the International Criminal Court in The Hague going to charge ISRAEL for War Crimes, Premeditated Murder and Genocide?
Almost every WAR in the last 100 years has been planned and orchestrated by the ZIONIST JEWS.
NO MORE WARS FOR THE ZIONIST JEWS.
All OUR Leaders are already ZIONIST JEW One World Order “PUPPETS”.
HOW ARE WE GOING TO PROSECUTE THE ZIONIST JEWS FOR MURDER AND WAR CRIMES?
The Zionist JEWS OWN the United Nations.
The Zionist JEWS OWN the Freemason International Criminal Court in The Hague.
HOW ARE WE GOING TO PROSECUTE THE ZIONIST JEWS FOR MURDER, GENOCIDE AND WAR CRIMES?
their time will come. give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.
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I concur with Mark Gaffney’s , “let us pray..” It seems like that is all we can do. Once upon a time I would get on the phone to the assistant of my Congressman, Waxman (one of the biggest zio-cons in the world), and I would not hang up; I tormented the poor young man for hours until he was begging me to get off the phone. Sometimes I wonder if I should just spend all day tormenting assistants to Senators and Congressmen. Would it matter? Letters don’t matter. I try not to vote in war mongers–oops last time I did out of the lesser of two evils, I voted for O Bummer. (They never let Ron Paul get nominated. What kind of democracy is this, anyway?) Articles like Gaffney’s probably won’t matter. For years brilliant people have been writing articles on reasons not to “go to war,” and the political robots stupidly chant back “we can’t let Iran get a nuke, we can’t let Iran get a nuke…” I don’t believe what the corrupted media writes about Iran. The truly, ugly evil is not Iran but our destructive and out of control war machine and the neo-cons in control of it. It’s probably hopeless. If we get “sunburned,” we get “sunburned.” Still, keep writing about it because at least we don’t have to be so alone in our despair.
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