Persian Gulf naval excercise, a warning to Iran?

[sabra]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Australia-involved-in-Gulf-naval-force/2006/10/28/1161749344670.html

<snip>

Ships from six nations, including Australia, will join forces for a mock interception of a ship carrying dangerous weapons technology in the Persian Gulf, an exercise the US expects nearby Iran to notice.

...

"From Iranian news reports we know the exercise got the attention of Iran," Robert Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said.

...

The Bush administration and the several dozen countries who support the proliferation initiative say stopping ships in international waters on suspicion they are carrying illicit traffic is legal, but there is some uncertainty about whether the suspect cargo can be seized.

In any event, conducting an exercise within range of Iran could be taken by Tehran as a demonstration of international resolve to curb its nuclear programs.

[nealmhughes]

1. Actually, this has been planned for some time, it was not necessarily

aimed at Iran, per se, but more thru ensuring that the oil gets thru the Straits and not molested on its way towards the open Indian Ocean, or so I understand.

A joint naval exercise takes months to plan. But they have been sabre rattling for some time against Iran, they just got bogged down with their sound bites being replaced by Kim and Foley's boyband.

[H2O Man]

2. Yes.

It is absolutely an attempt to display American power to intimidate Iran.

[madokie]

3. You bet it is

and if we aren't allowed to change course this election day all bets for a happy future for us and our fellow man is off. The very reason we have the Constitution and Bill of Rights is for people like bushie* who will do anything and everything to attain total control. well I don't like it for a minute and if I am fed up so are a lot of others and it looks more and more like we are going to have to take to the streets to get any redress.

[tom_paine]

4. Clumsy 1890s diplomacy. The Grand Chessboard renewed.

What did that whole period of nonsense ans inter-emprie jockeying result in in 1914? I can't remember.

As always the question to ask about this Bushevik Policy is: Incompetent arrogance or deliberiberat malevolence.

Since watching the contratsing testimonies of Sleezy Rice and Richard Clarke a couple years ago, I lean strongly toward deliberate malevolence.