Pentagon Tells Congress to Stop Buying Equipment it Doesn't Need Sen. John McCain, SASC's new chairman in the new Republican-run Senate, said one his top priorities for this session is to ensure that the service chiefs have more input into the acquisition and procurement process. https://www.military.com/daily-news...-to-stop-buying-equipment-it-doesnt-need.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49052302 Iran releases footage it says disproves drone was downed by US
Iran tell truth. U.S. tell big lie. Were you there to witness it or do you simply prefer Iranians to Americans?
Doctoring a video doesn't require technological advancement, that's why we have the Ukrainians do it. They do a terrible job by the way. The problem is that I have heard our government lie so many times I can't believe anything they say. Maybe Iran does lie, I don't know because I haven't paid that much attention to them.
So America and Iran are the only two countries with drones if it's not American it has to be Iranian... (insert more roll eyes)
The Maddox was actually engaged by NV torpedo boats and many shots were exchanged. The second incident 2 nights later was based on what came to be known as Tonkin ghosts. These were false alarms triggered by such as low flying aircraft and while they were not real attacks I can assure you that to the sailors going to battle stations in their skivvies in the middle of the night they were real enough. Any way, if this leads to a war with Iran I certainly hope we fight it more effectively than we did in Vietnam. Not likely though.
With respect to this drone that was allegedly shot down by the US, the following sticks out in my mind. These facts don't necessarily point to any one direction as far as the credibility of each side on the issue, but taken as a whole, I have the sense that whatever was shut down or jammed by the US, it wasn't a serious military drone operated by Iran. 1- In previous incidents of this nature, the US military would identify the type of drone that was shut down or jammed. For instance, the US did shoot down a couple of Iranian drones over Syria couple of years ago and the US military identified the precise type of drone that was shut down. Here, other than saying it was a "fixed wing drone", no other particulars have been provided by the US. 2- The US report was denied by Iran, whereas I could see Iran actually gaining more admitting the incident if it had actually occurred. And using the incident as underlying American actions that are destabilizing and threatening the security of the region as the incident by America's own account was over international waters with no explanation how the drone could have posed any threat to the US forces. 3- The denial of the incident was recounted by both Iran's foreign minister and deputy foreign ministers. I hardly find it necessary for them to risk their credibility to deny an incident of this nature. On the other hand, I also found it strange that the incident itself was first reported by Trump, not the Pentagon, whereas this was quite a low level type engagement and hardly the kind that you would think needs to be reported as a major issue by the US president. 4- Iran has released footage to show the drone taking photos of the Boxer when it was allegedly already "destroyed", whereas the US has not released any video or any other evidence to back up its claims. Weird, in particular when one party has categorically denied an incident first reported by the US president, as it would presumably be an easy task to prove it. Anyway, the whole issue isn't worth that much ink, but I did find the above rather curious and hard to explain if the American version of events is to be given any credence.
I am not sure what you are trying to get at or what you are referring to. The US has alleged the Boxer was the vessel being followed by the Iranian drone and the video released by Iran did show the Boxer.
We probably saw different videos and the one I saw had no clear picture of a ship. The only clear picture I saw was the one at the head of the article on MSN and if it was the Boxer it's flight deck had been converted.
America has a good history for shooting it's own allies in battle so it's more than likely it shot it's own drone down.
What I was talking about was the credibility of the Pentagon. Some poster was suggesting the Pentagon is honest and forthright. I pointed out the lies told about the Gulf Of Tonkin. An even more egregious example of Pentagon lies was the lies it told to Mary Tillman, mother of Pat. The Pentagon is just like the rest of the federal government--it lies all the time.
So any foreign government that disputes an American version of events is take it to the bank accurate? Only the Imperial US and their lust for empire would lie to their people and the world?
No, many governments lie to their people, perhaps all governments. But my perspective is of an American that has been paying attention to the lies of the US government since it sent me to Southeast Asia in 1970. I'm not happy about it, not proud of it, but the US government has a long and hard reputation for mendacity. Mary Tillman learned about it the hard way, but any person paying attention to details and honest with himself knows the federal government to be mostly nothing but lies and military aggression.
This US haters rhetoric when people criticise the US Government is very much the sign of an authoritarian county. Democracies work because the citizens do criticise the Government and stop them doing things they do not agree with.