Drums of war in Persian Gulf?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Have not seen any reports in the international mainstream media yet, but the Maritime website I follow daily had an ominous 14-word headline on its newsletter of August 7: ‘Iran navy readies drones and missiles as US Marines prepare to board oil tankers’. The article detailed how Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval vessels were now equipped with drones and several hundred cruise and ballistic missiles with ranges from 300 to 1,000 kilometres.

This was in retaliation to announcements from Washington that it could soon offer to put Armed Service personnel on commercial vessels traversing the Strait of Hormuz, following what the US deemed recent harassment of said vessels by Iranian gunboats. Then on August 9 my favourite website carried this headline: ‘Over 3,000 US Navy sailors and Marines arrive in Middle East amid Iranian threat to shipping’. They were aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall, which entered the Red Sea after traversing Suez Canal. The vessels carried fixed wing aircraft and helicopters in addition to landing craft, and were headed towards the Strait Of Hormuz between Iran and Oman – where one-fifth of the world’s crude oil passes en route from the Persian Gulf to refineries worldwide..

My memory harkened back to those dark days of President Jimmy Carter’s one term in the Oval Office, and his many months of fruitless negotiations to free the 52 personnel held hostage for 444 days after the US Embassy in Tehran was stormed by radical Islamic fundamentalists on November 4, 1979. Jimmy Carter put his Christian faith above everything else, and for better or worse, held to his religious principles throughout his time in office.

Today there is another overtly religious politician sitting behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office, but far different from his Democrat predecessor. President Joe Biden has been engulfed in the mire of Washington’s fetid swamp for over 50 years as senator and vice president, and is nowhere as pure in heart as President Carter was. In fact, he’s an old war horse who should never forget that the Iranians play just as dirty as him, and remember that they released the hostages in January 20, 1981 a few minutes after Jimmy Carter left the White House, having been replaced by Republican Ronald Reagan.

Jimmy Carter was an example that nice guys finish last in the sordid and sleazy game known as politics. Another skirmish in the Persian Gulf seems to be brewing, and could the backbeat to the upcoming US presidential election be the sounds of the Drums of War?

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada