Iranian Boats Threaten U.S. Ships

Earlier this week, we reported that Obama may have backed away from his Syrian "red line" because the Iranians made it clear that if we attacked their ally Assad, they would walk away from the nuclear negotiations. Obama has empowered Iran and its allies, while at the same time distancing the United States from our ally Israel.

The Iranians understand propaganda and the power of perception, particularly in the Middle East. Osama bin Laden once said that Muslims like to follow the "strong horse." Not surprisingly, Tehran is trying to prove that it is the strong horse in the Middle East, and so it is constantly trying to humiliate Obama and the United States.

The U.S. Navy suffered a terrible embarrassment earlier this year with the capture and mistreatment of our sailors. Now the Navy is having to endure further humiliation as Iranian boats harass our ships.

Yesterday, four Iranian boats approached the U.S.S. Nitze near the Strait of Hormuz. Various warnings, including radio messages, the ship's whistle and flares were all ignored. The boats came within 300 yards of the Nitze, which changed course "to de-escalate the situation and avoid collision."

A second ship, the U.S.S. Squall, was also harassed by Iranian boats. The Squall was forced to fire warning shots when the Iranian boats came as close as 200 yards.

This isn't a game. The Iranian navy is no match for the U.S. fleet. But there is one tactic that Iran has threatened which does concern our naval commanders. What would we do if a dozen small boats, each one packed with explosives, started racing toward a ship from various directions?

Ship defenses do not easily provide an answer to this challenge. Any answer would require us to start firing long before they were close enough to potentially ram one of our ships.

After seven and a half years, it's apparent this president is clueless. There are deep fears in Washington that the aggressive removal of military officers in recent years and their replacement by political hacks has left the Pentagon woefully unprepared to prevent a disaster from happening.

A Mohammed Problem?

Two headlines today on the Drudge Report got my attention:

"Mohammed in Minneapolis Charged in ISIS Plot" and "Mohammed in Mississippi gets 8 years after ISIS recruits."

Interesting. Maybe Obama is right -- maybe Islam doesn't have a problem with terrorism. Maybe we have a Mohammed problem.

Here's an idea: Perhaps instead of banning Muslim immigration, we just ban people named Mohammed!

One University Fights Back

It's no secret that the left dominates our university campuses. But I was pleased to read this morning that at least one major university was fighting back against some of the worst elements of political correctness.

Kudos to Dr. John Ellison, Dean of Students at the University of Chicago. He sent a letter to all incoming freshmen telling them to check their "trigger warnings" and to stuff their "safe spaces."

I hope you enjoy these excerpts as much as I did:
 

"Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn, without fear of censorship. Civility and mutual respect are vital to all of us, and freedom of expression does not mean the freedom to harass or threaten others. You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion, and even disagreement. At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.

"Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so called 'trigger warnings,' we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.

"Fostering the free exchange of ideas reinforces a related University priority -- building a campus that welcomes people of all backgrounds."

Now that is real tolerance!

You can read the entire letter here.