Just Like the Marxists In Britain Destroyed That Navy, America's Navy Is Only a Shell of Former Might

When Marxists assume more and more power, something happens to a country's military - we've seen how the Marxists in America have been intent with "de-masculating" the American fighting forces - what with soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen charged with "war crimes" and sitting in military prisons, with the introduction and welcoming of homosexuals into the rank and file of the military, and with a set of rules of engagement that resemble that of a kickball game between kids on a playground.

And as we saw in the Marxist takeover of Britain, one intent is always to destroy the power of the seas of a country's navy.  Remember the images of the British marines and sailors being abducted by the Iranians and being paraded in front of the world's cameras?  Remember the humiliation the British people felt?  All part of that Marxist plan.

Well, this article from Family Security Matters gives us a head's up on how that all is well underway with America's Navy.  Well underway.

Hollowing Out the U.S. Navy


From the time Alfred Mahan wrote his classic work on naval power at the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, this two ocean nation relied on sea power to protect its territory at home and its interests abroad. In fact, it was axiomatic to suggest that the hegemonic role the United States played in maintaining global equilibrium was directly related to its ability to project naval power.

Clearly this wasn't always the case. In the World War I period from 1914 to 1918 the United States had a fleet level of 363, a fleet smaller than Germany, the United Kingdom and France. It remained at that level in the 1920's (an average of 376) and during the ‘30's till 1938 (an average of 339 ships). Needless to remind anyone about the onset of WWII there was a slight increase in new vessels from '39 to '41, during the Lend Lease period, (a total of 394), but by 1942, with the war in full swing, there were 1782 ships in the Navy and by 1945 at the end of the war, the U.S. had 6768 vessels.

This force level was not sustainable. With retrenchment very much in the air after the war, naval forces were reduced to 634 in 1950. However Cold War sabre rattling as a function of Stalinist diplomacy, led to ship levels in the U.S. increasing to 1030 by 1955, a high point from '55 to the present.

In the 1960's naval forces averaged 878 during the decade and in the 1970's averaged a reduced 606. In fact, President Reagan who often discussed the need for a 600 ship navy never reached that goal in his eight years in office, the highest level being 594 in 1987 and an average of 561 during his tenure.

Now the U.S. Navy is a mere shadow of itself. During the recent presidential debate, candidate Mitt Romney noted that naval capability had shrunk to a level lower than World War I. Technically he was correct since naval forces are now at 287. President Obama glibly responded by suggesting this is irrelevant; after all, we don't rely on bayonets or horses either. His implication is that our ships are more sophisticated than their predecessors at sea so the numbers do not carry the same logistical weight they once did.

By any standard this is questionable. Numbers matter. If one third of our ships are in repair and one third are in port for the rest and relaxation of sailors, there are approximately 90 vessels available to patrol the seven seas protecting American interests. This is not only an historical record, it is a number inadequate for the task at hand.

An active and assertive blue water Chinese navy is intent on challenging U.S. naval superiority in the Pacific. In the past, challenges of this kind were met by a show of force, an aircraft carrier force or joint military maneuvers with an allied nation. At the moment, we do not have the fleet strength for a symbolic act or to engage in joint training with say, Japan. The Obama administration has simply hollowed out U.S. capabilities.

The argument for this decision is that we cannot afford to be a supreme military force. It was revealing that administration officials said recently the U.S. would not be a super power by 2030. Based on the possibility of sequestration and further military retrenchment, that date may be an exaggeration. Decline is a choice and it appears as if the Obama team has opted to embrace it based on the goal of additional domestic spending.

Military spending is four and a half percent of GDP, a far cry from World War II levels and a fraction of domestic spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. What the Obama team does not seem to realize is that a hollow military capability puts at risk everything this nation has accomplished. Domestic spending clearly has its place, but defense spending refers to our very existence. If we insist on underwriting so-called entitlements at the expense of our naval assets, we will relinquish the future and put ourselves in the position of arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. When that ship went down and when the ship of state goes down, it doesn't matter who has the best view of the horizon.

Will The DHS Pull Over The U.S. Navy?

Holger Awakens commenter and fellow blogger, Prototech, alerted me to this via his post at his blog. Here's the link to the full article over at Pupista. What intrigued me was his speaking about the report of the Louisiana police detaining a driver for having a Gadsden bumper sticker (Don't Tread on Me) on his vehicle. The fascinating part of Prototech's post is the fact that the U.S. Navy is flying the Don't Tread On Me flags (Navy Jack) on all U.S. ships during the duration of the war on terror.

From Pupista, here's the caption of the above photo:

"Aboard the USS Salt Lake City (SSN 716) Sep. 11, 2002 -- A Sailor hoists the "Navy Jack" aboard the Salt Lake City in memory of the September 11 attacks on America. Under direction of the Secretary of the Navy, Gordon R. England, all U.S. Navy ships will fly the “Navy Jack” in place of the “Union Jack” for the duration of the war on terrorism. The “Navy Jack” is a flag consisting of a rattlesnake superimposed across thirteen horizontal alternating red and white stripes, with the motto, “Don’t Tread on Me.” U.S. Navy photo. (RELEASED)"

Here's the link to the naval article.

Kind of makes you chuckle as you think about Janet Napolitano out in a 16 foot Lund fishing boat with a 45 hp Yamaha on it trying to pull over a U.S. Navy cruiser for flying the Navy Jack colors, now doesn't it? haha

(appreciation to Prototech)

U.S. Navy Kicks Pirate Ass Off Of Somalia

For the second day in a row, the U.S. Navy apprehended pirates working in the Gulf of Aden off of Somalia - today they got nine pirates aboard a skiff that were threatening an Indian-flagged cargo ship. Here's some of the details of the U.S. naval action, from the report at Breitbart:

The U.S. Navy apprehended suspected pirates Thursday for a second consecutive day in the Gulf of Aden, a treacherous waterway between Somalia and Yemen where international forces have been battling pirates preying on commercial vessels.
The high-seas action came as a Ukrainian cargo ship laden with tanks and heavy weapons, which Somali pirates released last week after holding it for more than four months, docked at a Kenyan port.
The Navy said it responded Thursday to a distress signal from the Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya which said it was fired upon by men in a skiff who were trying to board their vessel.
In a statement from the 5th Fleet's Bahrain headquarters, the Navy said a helicopter from the USS Vella Gulf fired two warning shots at the suspected pirates to stop them fleeing. U.S. forces searched the skiff and found weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, then took nine suspected pirates aboard the American ship.

I wonder, in this day and age, is it too old fashioned to skip arresting these thugs of the high seas and simply have them walk the plank in the shark infested waters?

US Navy seizes 9 suspected pirates in Gulf of Aden

ABOARD THE USNS LEWIS AND CLARK (AP) - The U.S. Navy apprehended suspected pirates Thursday for a second consecutive day in the Gulf of Aden, a treacherous waterway between Somalia and Yemen where international forces have been battling pirates preying on commercial vessels.
The high-seas action came as a Ukrainian cargo ship laden with tanks and heavy weapons, which Somali pirates released last week after holding it for more than four months, docked at a Kenyan port.
The Navy said it responded Thursday to a distress signal from the Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya which said it was fired upon by men in a skiff who were trying to board their vessel.
In a statement from the 5th Fleet's Bahrain headquarters, the Navy said a helicopter from the USS Vella Gulf fired two warning shots at the suspected pirates to stop them fleeing. U.S. forces searched the skiff and found weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, then took nine suspected pirates aboard the American ship.
Officials were gathering evidence on the incident and may hand the suspects to Kenyan authorities for prosecution, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The United States agreed last month to hand pirate suspects to the east African nation.
On Wednesday, the same American ship detained seven other suspected pirates—the Navy's first arrests since it established an anti-piracy task force this year.
Those suspects, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, had tried to board the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel Polaris using a ladder from their skiff.
The seven were transferred via helicopter to the USNS Lewis and Clark on Thursday. They will eventually be handed to Kenya, according to Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet.
Associated Press Television News footage showed some of the men, handcuffed and wearing leg shackles and white jumpsuits, being escorted from helicopters onto the ship.
They were given a meal, a blanket, a towel and a bar of soap, but they were not allowed to talk to each other. U.S. forces assisted by a translator were trying to get information from the men, such as their ages and nationalities.
The men were then taken to a holding area surrounded by razor wire where they were watched by U.S. forces.
Pirates, mostly from lawless Somalia, have become an increasing problem in the region. Last year, pirates seeking multimillion-dollar ransoms attacked 111 ships in the Gulf of Aden and seized 42 of them, including the Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina.
That vessel docked at Mombasa on Thursday. The ship's captain had died of a suspected heart attack during the kidnapping.
"It is very difficult to express our feelings because the voyage is too hard for everybody," the acting captain, Viktor Nikolsky, said in broken English during brief comments to journalists at the docks.
The 20 Russian and Ukrainian crew members were then whisked away for medical checks, and were expected to be flown back to Ukraine on Saturday.
The Ukrainian ship's capture sparked a diplomatic spat; while Kenya had said the weapons belonged to Nairobi, a Kenyan maritime official and several foreign diplomats said the weapons were destined for southern Sudan.
The allegations embarrassed Kenya, which had helped broker a peace deal between northern Sudan's government and the oil-rich south in 2005, ending a 21-year civil war.

U.S. Navy Ship Warns Off Iranian Boat

Apparently the Iranians are up to their cat and mouse games with ships near Iranian waters but this time, an American naval ship decided to fire a flare at the Iranian high speed boat and the Iranians turned tail. No other incidents were reported after the flare was fired. This from the article here at Yahoo:

A U.S. Navy ship encountered a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf and warned it away by firing a flare, the Pentagon said Friday.
Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not come as close.
The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official said the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way without incident.

Now, there has been speculation that these Iranian speedboats continue these maneuvers as a way of seeing just how close they can get to a U.S. ship - meaning that if they find they can actually get within 200 yards without any action against them, they only need to close that 200 yard gap to then hit the ship broadside. My concern is the damage done to the U.S.S. Cole and how the Iranians appear to be testing these speed boats as a suicide car bombing on the seas.

I truly wish the next time they ignored radio contact and came within say, 500 yards of a ship, the Iranian boat was blown out of the water. What exactly could the Iranians do about it? It would send a clear signal.

Navy ship encounters Iranian boat

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said there were no signs any boat was armed.
Iranian English-language Press TV quoted an unnamed official with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard as denying "any new confrontation" in the Persian Gulf.
"The Iranian boats approached the U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf for a routine check," the official was quoted as saying on Press TV.
Meanwhile, the Web site of Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam TV cited an unnamed senior Iranian Navy official as saying that "no accident took place between the Iranian boats and the U.S. ship, but there was a recognition of the U.S. forces' presence in the Persian Gulf."
This passed in a "normal way ... and according to protocol, and then the boats left the scene with no accident whatsoever," the Iranian Navy official said.
This marked at least the second U.S. Navy encounter with an aggressive Iranian high-speed boat this year. In January, Iranian boats made what the Navy called provocative moves near a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
___