"I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," President Donald Trump declared in a tweet Wednesday morning.
The declaration came roughly a week after eleven Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels "harassed" U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. was not pleased.
WATCH: These Iranians got entirely too close to US ships in the Persian Gulf
Six U.S. vessels were conducting joint integration operations with U.S. Army AH-64E Apache attack helicopters when the Iranian vessels began repeatedly approaching dangerously close to the bows and sterns of the U.S. ships. They were traveling at "extremely close range and high speeds" to within 10 yards of the U.S. vessels, according to the Pentagon.
The harassment went on for an hour, according to a statement from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The U.S. crews issued multiple warnings via radio, ship horn-honking and "long-range acoustic noise maker devices." After an hour, the IRGCN vessels responded and maneuvered away. Now, Trump believes he has given the green light for the Navy to retaliate for the bullying — or just sending a warning, as Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist explained the tweet.
"The president is describing and responding to poor behavior on behalf of the Iranians and he is emphasizing and warning to them about the challenges of what they will create," Norquist said when asked about the president's tweet at a Pentagon press briefing on Wednesday. "
"I like that the president warned an adversary," Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten said at the same briefing. "That's what he's doing. He's providing a warning. If you want to go down that path we will come and we will come large. So don't go down that path. That is what he's saying."
Predictably, however, Twitter users questioned the president's verb choice. Namely — how does one "shoot down" a boat? Does Iran now have flying boats?
Sailors rn trying to figure how to sink planes and shoot down boats. pic.twitter.com/TKUYuSJIK6
— Naveed Jamali (@NaveedAJamali) April 22, 2020
Beyond syntactical concerns, members of Congress — including Navy veteran Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. — have said Trump's tweets are a threat to national security.
“The president’s continued issuing of orders to our military via tweet is a threat to our national security and, if followed without clear guidance and rules of engagement, will unnecessarily escalate tensions with Iran and possibly lead to all-out-conflict," Luria said in a statement.
"I have deployed to the Gulf on multiple ships and been personally involved in these at-sea interactions with the Iranians dozens of times. The Iranians routinely conduct harassing actions towards our ships and have done so for decades," Luria added. "We train for this and respond in a measured and responsible way to de-escalate these provocations. Moreover, if these are hollow threats, they weaken our stance and embolden Iran to continue to harass our forces unabated. Sometimes restraint is the greatest show of strength."
The harassment has caused additional concern in light of recent questions of readiness within the U.S. Navy. The branch has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 with close to 1,300 confirmed cases — close to 800 of which are among crew members from the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
When asked if the virus has impacted the Navy's readiness, Hyten and Norquist both said no. "One carrier, as mighty as that carrier is and as amazing as that carrier is — it's a small fraction of the combat power that the United States brings to a puzzle," Hyten added.
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Reach Elizabeth Howe on Twitter @ECBHowe.
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