USS Mason Fired on Again Off Coast of Yemen: Officials

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: NBC News

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason was fired on again in international waters off the coast of Yemen, but the ship deployed countermeasures and the vessel was not struck, two U.S. officials said.

The incident occurred late Saturday or early Sunday local time. At least one missile was fired, the officials said.

The destroyer was targeted by missiles fired from rebel-controlled areas in Yemen twice earlier this week, prompting the U.S. military to launch cruise missiles that destroyed three radar sites in response.

After the earlier attempted missile attacks this week, a Defense Department official warned that those who fire on U.S. vessels do so at their peril.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/uss-mason-fired-again-coast-yemen-officials-n666971

[whistler162]

1. Captain please have the crew repaint your ship....

black and white circles with a red dot in the middle is a bad color scheme.

I know it is serious but man how come it seems like the Mason is it in a game of tag!

[CentralMass]

2. Yes. This seems like bullshit. Get them out if there or let them protect thenselves.

[Mr.Bill]

3. They are protecting themselves.

They are easily shooting down the missiles fired at them.

The enemy is succeeding only in displaying their inferior technology.

[tonyt53]

4. They waited for the second missile attack so they could find their radar.

This third attack probably showed them where the missile was launched from. Very good chance that there has already been a strike against the missile launch site today. Odds are that a the US had eyes in the sky just waiting.

[RKP5637]

16. Yep! n/t

[JackRiddler]

8. Gulf of Tonkin

[EX500rider]

10. Not even close..

....the Houthi rebels have been launching missiles at different targets for months. Mostly villages and towns in Saudi Arabia.

[MicaelS]

15. Are you seriously accusing President Obama

Of trying to start a war?

[Missn-Hitch]

5. Iran is sending in two warships. I am hoping things calm down.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/13/iran-sends-ships-to-yemeni-coast-in-wake-of-u-s-strikes/

GO NAVY!!

[7962]

6. Mason, Light 'em up until they wake up & smell the coffee. Iranians are firing those missiles,

is my bet. Houthis arent that capable.

[awoke_in_2003]

37. Iran would be firing Silkworms. nt

[7962]

38. Its not likely that the Houthis have the skills to fire these either.

I say theres a good chance Iranians are running them. Silkworms would be noticed being sent to Yemen & likely stopped or destroyed.
Or maybe they've just got a good training program

[EX500rider]

56. Iranian clones of the Silkworm..

On Yemen’s Red Sea coast Iran backed Shia rebels fired more missiles at American warships (two destroyers and an amphibious ship). None of the missiles hit the warships. The rebels are believed to be using Iranian Noor anti-ship missiles. These are clones of the Chinese C-802 (“Silkworm”). Iran ordered some of these in 1995 but China was pressured to respect the international weapons embargoes on Iran and only delivered a few before cancelling the order. China kept silent as Iran proceeded to reverse-engineer the C-802s.

https://strategypage.com/qnd/iran/articles/20161018.aspx

[JackRiddler]

9. Maybe they shouldn't be invading that country?

[EX500rider]

12. What invasion?

The Saudi & Gulf State militaries are helping the elected government of Yemen in a fight against Iranian supplied Houthi rebels.

[JackRiddler]

22. You tell yourself that.

The US has been striking inside Yemen and mostly killing civilians there for about 10 years. Saudi Arabia launched an aggressive invasion that is tearing the country apart, bombing funerals and weddings and threatening to cause mass starvation. Can you guess who provides all of the arms used by the radical Islamist Wahhabi oil kingdom, possibly the worst regime on earth as well as the most important ally of the United States? They have no business invading Yemen to settle its domestic conflicts. The US has no business providing the arms and support for that invasion.

UN Condemns Saudi Coalition Bombing of Yemen Hospital
http://www.voanews.com/a/airstrike-hits-hospital-in-yemen/3467004.html

[EX500rider]

26. Yes we have been striking at Al-Qaeda camps worldwide...

....including AQAP, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen.

Yemen comes nowhere near "worst regime" on earth, that title belongs firmly to the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea.
Is China as responsible for the war as the US? They supply the arms to Iran who gives them to the rebels. And if Saudi didn't use US made weapons they would just use Russian or Chinese, wouldn't change things a bit, they have the cash to buy wherever they want.


UN Condemns Saudi Coalition Bombing of Yemen Hospital
Has the UN condemned the rebels firing missiles at Saudi border towns and villages or do they get a pass on atrocities?

[JackRiddler]

32. "Al Qaeda camps"

Tell yourself that. Murdering civilians, including at weddings and funerals. Classifying them as collateral damage, oops. Classifying every male murdered over the age of 14 as a "militant." Doing absolutely nothing to address the problem and causes of this terrorism. Just showing who the more effective terrorist is.

You have zero case to make that Saudi Arabia is not among the worst, and far worse than Iran, where women can drive and make up the majority of university students. Your Saudi Arabian Wahhabi-exporting ally is of course the original source and still main sponsor of this "Al Qaeda" you use as the excuse for bombing Yemen.

And that other excuse! Let's sell arms to the butchers, since they could get it on the open market. Lovely. As a defense, "just responding to the market" does not even rise to the level of "just following orders." It is odious. It is also just a distancing device for the reality: The Saudi regime exists because of US sponsorship.

The United States has brought enough destruction to the Middle East. Millions are dead. Most of what we see today there probably would not be happening in the same way, would not be as bloody, if not for the decision to launch a planned war of aggression on the nation of Iraq. The US government responsible for that crime has no standing to determine the government of Yemen.

[EX500rider]

34. "The Saudi regime exists because of US sponsorship."

Nonsense, they exist because they have billions of petro-dollars..
We could sell them squat and nothing would change, they would just have Russian or Chinese or French or ect.. weapon systems.

[7962]

39. War isnt pretty & sometimes the innocent get killed.

And sometimes its by design of the enemy, knowing full well it will get them great press.
And "millions" are dead? Fantasy.

[JackRiddler]

41. Since 2003, millions are dead...

as the direct and indirect result of the US destruction of Iraq and Libya and the Saudi ally's aggressive ideology and backing of jihadis worldwide, including in Syria.

And now this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1599271

[oberliner]

20. Why can't right-wing fundamentalist rebels be allowed to overthrow governments in peace?

Why can't we just ignore our allies when they ask for help?

[jimmil]

21. There have been private forces supported by the US

In Yemen for several years. My son knows a Merc (I do too as a matter of fact) and he has been in and out of Yemen for several years now. Yemen will blow up just like the rest of the mid-east.

[jpak]

23. Chinese missiles suck - Iran should ask for their money back

[Helen Borg]

24. And why is the US provoking Yemen?

It almost sounds as if they wanted a war or something.

[EX500rider]

25. Yes, forcing them to fire missiles at our navy boats, very cheeky of us...lol

[GOLGO 13]

27. They are going to learn not to do that to us.

[The Wizard]

28. Anyone remember the

Maddox and Turner Joy?

[EX500rider]

30. Except the rebels in Yemen have been firing missiles at ships.

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-us-navy-ship-damaged-houthi-missile-yemen-2016-10

[JackRiddler]

33. Totally unprovoked. Not that anyone fired on them!

[EX500rider]

35. The US warship transiting off shore certainly didn't..

....the villagers in Saudi villages certainly didn't...

[JackRiddler]

40. Hmm, a US radar ship in a war...

in which the US is providing intel and targeting data to the Saudi invaders. Fascinating. No role. No relation.

[EX500rider]

42. If Arab coalition needs intel it will come from UAV's & satellites & Patriot radar.

"Saudi invaders" lol
You mean Arab coalition that came to the aid of the government of Yemen fighting off a Iranian funded rebellion?
The destroyer is there because the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a important choke point out of the Red Sea and somebody has been firing missiles at shipping traffic.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement: "The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world."

[7962]

44. Sometimes its like talking to a wall.......

[JackRiddler]

50. Oh I know exactly whereof you speak.

US planes refuel the Saudi AF, drones bomb various targets killing mainly civilians (since that is what war IS, fullstop), warships support the blockade, the Saudi military is US-armed, all of this converges but nothing's ever related. Everything's packaged in neat fragments, each has its rationalization or accompanying press release from the Pentagon to justify it, which will be faithfully transported here by you and your bud. It's as biased and ludicrous as pretty much any other nationalist distortion of the world's realities.

There is no justification for supporting the Saudis in any way. They are the world's "leading sponsor of terrorism," not Iran.

The US has no moral standing in the Middle East after all its crimes there, and we the people have no interest in determining who wins every factional fight around the globe. That's how you sink into unsolvable messes that you make worse by your "interventions."

Our interest is to get the fuck out and convert to solar and wind before the fracked earth stops yielding oil and gas and the aquifers are are all poisoned. Our interest is in spending these resources at home and being an example of peace and development.

Fuck imperial management in the Middle East, let the Russians sink in and get themselves destroyed instead, if you prefer. It's very mid-20th century thinking, wake up to what time it is.

[7962]

52. Iran supports the insurgents trying to overthrow the Yemeni government.

Those same insurgents/Iranians are now firing at US ships. they'll be destroyed for doing so.
Tell Iran to get out of Yemen and the rest will take care of itself

[FigTree]

31. Chess.

Iran and Russia have a deep chess culture. The world now appears to be some kind of a chess-board, with its centre, its wings, its strategies and tactics more than it looks like a go board as it did during the cold war. It looks like the US administration has begun to play that game.

[Blue_Tires]

45. Whoever is doing this must be suicidal...

[Hatemonger]

47. Arleigh Burke Destroyers are nasty

Would hate to be on the receiving end of all that US ass kicking machine!

[JackRiddler]

51. Macho might-makes-right team fan nonsense.

The US should be a society for its people, not an "ass-kicking machine" murdering strangers a world way.