Why The U.S. Navy Moved Aircraft Carrier Out of The Persian Gulf

The Lyft driver who brought me home from the city one night last week had served in the Persian Gulf three times while in the U.S. Navy. We had plenty to talk about for 25 minutes. He told me that the reason we moved the USS Theodore Roosevelt out of the Gulf recently was because of the Russians firing cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea into Syria. He said the U.S. had been caught off guard by the range of those missiles, so the aircraft carriers had to be moved out of their range.

Rubbish, I said. Putin would not send a cruise missile to attack an American aircraft carrier. There are missiles in every country in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea and so forth, and none would fire away at an aircraft carrier of the strongest navy on the planet.

He asked me to recall the reports that a few of the Russian cruise missiles supposedly failed, fell into Iran. Yes, I heard and read about it, and also read the denials. I saw a couple photos of holes in the ground that looked like they'd been dug by a couple kids playing with shovels. I didn't see remnants of crashed missiles, not one shard. I don't know the truth, but I'm sceptical of Pentagon leaks and claims about it, and anything that comes out of the mouth of Andrea Mitchell or anybody she gives the okay for an appearance on MSNBC to talk about anything relating to the Middle East.

Lyft driver then suggested that the U.S.N., in an abundance of caution, moved the carrier out of the Gulf in case a wayward Russian cruise missile accidentally falls out of the sky right onto the flight deck and kaboom.

I guess he forgot that the U.S. military would shoot that errant bugger down before it got close, but my ride was over at that point and so was out chat.

Then today I read in The New Khalij that a former Lebanese minister and head of a political party -- a man who must have been sleeping for the past few years -- said that Doha would be bombarded with rockets if it joined with the Saudis and Turks, intervening in Syria militarily in support of the terrorists of Ahrar Ash-Sham and other head choppers.

Now there is a reason to move a U.S. aircraft carrier out of the waters of the Persian Gulf. We must watch out for errant Lebanese missiles on their way to Doha.

Matthews, Maddow Spread Rubbish About Russians in Syria Today

MSNBC big league star Rachel Maddow has become a major disappointment in her coverage of news relating to the Middle East, doling out propaganda as if it's reporting. 

Today I heard Chris Matthews say about the first Russian bombing raids in Syria, "They're bombing the good guys." I listened to his program for a couple years in the afternoons when there wasn't anything interesting to me on C-Span, until I couldn't bear to hear his ignorance on "my" issues. Now he declares the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaida offshoot, allegiance sworn, and Ahrar-as-Shams are "good guys." How is that not support for terrorism?

I didn't expect the same from Ph.D. Rachel, but she's hopped on the bullshit bandwagon without a fare-thee-well in regards to Syria and Iran, for some time now. She sometimes issues corrections, but never about the obvious mistakes and preconceived narratives for Middle East matters. 

The Pentagon whispers in her ear and she puts it on the air. Often, as today, a diligent amount of research would have turned up some large holes in her so-called reporting.

Examples from tonight's program: the faux contempt that the U.S. military has been bombing terrorists in Syria for a year and the Russians are late to the party. Perhaps she was unaware that we and the others were not invited in but the Russians were. Minimally, she or her staff could have looked at the headlines in Google News. Perhaps if they'd clicked on a few articles, that simple fact would have become clear.

Perhaps it didn't occur to her that the U.S. doesn't get to choose targets for the Russians. 

Perhaps it didn't occur to her that the U.S. drones can see the convoys of terrorists moving towards Damascus, and saw them moving towards the ancient Palmyra, but somehow forget to send target data to our bombs.

 Does she really believe our lack of success is because the lousy Syrian dictator won't give up power? 

I watch her show, have done since the beginning and whilst she subbed for Keith Olbermann. I will continue to watch her show because she covers D.C. politics from a progressive POV and I'm interested in that, but I'm not just going to growl at the tube all the time when I hear rubbish.