Enemy Mines, War With Iran, Our Fate

And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and UPARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; UPARSIN, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Daniel 5: 25-28

How I'd much rather write about the nice new Democratic Congress passing a minimum wage increase, and how owning a slave to work your back 40 acres would still be more expensive (quite literally) than paying a 40-hr per week worker the new minimum wage. I haven't been saying enough nice things about Congress lately, who have finally gotten the message the American people want out of Iraq and are set to raise hell with the Bush Administration. Too bad we're both probably three years too late. Go, people and Congress, go.

In Speaking of the Straits of Hormuz, I speculated that an Iranian bottom-lurking mine was probably involved in a US sub's collision with a humongous Japanese tanker, the Mogamigawa (in English, it means something like "Duck God River"). If the anonymous words of a shipping company spokeswoman are to be relied on, and those of the tanker's crew, either a mine or a torpedo was almost certainly fired at the USS Newport News. What would've happened if it sunk it or the tanker?

Here's how the US Navy sums up the threat from stealth propulsion and other modern underwater mines:

Today the Navy can expect to encounter a wide spectrum of naval mines, from traditional low-technology mines to technologically advanced systems. Although low-technology mines continue to be manufactured, today's mine producers and exporters are focusing on the growing demand for more capable weapons. Modern influence mines, whether magnetic, acoustic, seismic, underwater electric potential (UEP), pressure, or any combination thereof, may incorporate advanced technologies to improve their lethality, reliability, and versatility.

Application of stealth technology, including the use of irregular shapes, anechoic coatings, and nonmagnetic materials - including the use of fiberglass case materials - increases resistance to countermeasures and reduces maintenance requirements. The proliferation of advanced mines designed with remote control and counter-countermeasures capabilities is also of grave concern. Many of these are equipped with microprocessor-controlled target detection devices, ship counters, remote control, and delayed arming mechanisms, as well as sweep obstructors to thwart attempts at identification and/or neutralization. Furthermore, microprocessor-controlled TDDs can be used to upgrade obsolescent mines at a fraction of the cost of new mines. Improved sensors, propulsion systems, and deployment methods are also increasing the lethality, versatility, effective range, and countermeasure resistance of propelled warhead mines. All of these technologies are readily available for export. The steadily increasing number of mine producers and exporters is enabling countries without a production capability to access a wide range of weapons, from simple moored contact mines to advanced mines using the latest technology.

The Navy doesn't sound all that confident about how to deal with these mines. In fact, there is no known defense for propulsion mines, which Iran has purchased from Russia. Here are some of the characteristics of the device which made the loud bang and made the shaking before the sub hit the tanker, as the crew of the Mogamigawa related to the ship's owners:

Russia's widely exported UDM bottom-influence mine can either be purchased or backfitted with a remote control capability. The tactical advantages of remote control systems, especially in defensive, shallow-water environments, will likely further their development and use. The SMDM mobile mine is marketed for export as an efficient, highly sweep-resistant weapon for use against surface ships and submarines in constrained coastal waters that may be inaccessible to conventional minelaying platforms. The SMDM combines a bottom-influence mine with a torpedo afterbody to provide a considerable stand-off capability. These systems, in conjunction with a stockpile that at one time reached hundreds of thousands of mines, represent a potentially formidable mine proliferation threat.

China is marketing the EM55, a straight-rising, rocket-propelled warhead mine for use against surface ships and submarines. Propelled-warhead mines use either buoyancy or a propulsion system to transport the warhead to the target, providing greater range capability than conventional mines. Furthermore, the faster the warhead reaches the target the less time the platform has to initiate countermeasures or evasive maneuvers. These mines can be straight-rising, "vectored," or homing. Buoyancy-propelled mines are most effective in shallow waters against slow moving targets, whereas rocket-propelled mines travel three times faster and can be used in waters as deep as 650 feet.

Iran continues to procure mines as part of its naval development program. Their mine program is part of a larger strategy to control access to the Strait of Hormuz.

Here's how I sum up the threat from the mines, and the threat from a cabal looking to make another "preemptive strike:" having two carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf isn't doing a whole hell of a lot for the security of the American people or anyone else. It's doing the opposite. The reverse. The upside-down and sideways. The verkackt. America is acting like a new Titanic, like it's intending to ram the iceberg so it'll magically disperse into little pieces and melt. But we are a mere ship of state, and a mortal one.

I'll tell you straight. We will be damned lucky to make it out of 2007 without these murderous imbeciles hitting Iran with nukes. And if they do, we are in deep, deep trouble. And that's even without triggering the global nuclear war which is a distinct possibility. Don't get me wrong: I'm an optimist. I don't think a war has to happen, and even think the response to bombing Iran might be more measured than nuclear. But you can believe me when I say, "we will be damned lucky." Because all the signs right now point to hitting Iran. Something domestic or miraculous will have to happen to derail it, because the pieces are all in place.

Invading Iraq, you see, was like Germany invading Poland, it was like Japan invading China, predatory acts with all the attending sins and crimes against humanity. It's a hanging crime amongst nations, and unless we back out and acknowledge that fact, making proper, humble amends as a country and as people, we're going to hang for it. Or better put, we'll sink for it. Unless the former juvenile delinquents merrily spinning the helm to aim for the iceberg can be removed this year, America will be defeated like no country before. I'm not sure how, but it won't be good. This is our country, we are its people, and unless we storm that bridge and truss up the psychopaths who are set to start nuclear war, we will be judged very harshly. It's written on the wall by a disembodied hand as we weigh treasure, reading MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN: "You have been weighed, and found wanting," was Daniel's interpretation of the writing to Belshazzar. Literally, it would mean something like "half a dollar, half a dollar, a penny, and bits." Daniel meant that the King would die and his lands would be split. They did.

God has always righted things with fire that were as wrong as this. It's hard to see when it's in front of your nose, but by allowing so great an evil, and then by benefiting from it, we too become evil. Oh, how our country will be humbled if we don't do the right thing now. The scenario I previously imagined (on the record) which Dick Cheney and by extension, George W. Bush, would use to start a shooting war with Iran was the pretext of an American nuclear submarine being sunk in the Persian Gulf. And that almost happened on Monday. God damn Dick Cheney. May God strike him and his cabal dead for the peace of nations, and may God bless and empower those people who have been trying, successfully so far, to thwart the Neocon push for war with Iran. This is my prayer in the holiest name I know, Jesus Christ whom I believe, Amen.