An Iranian maritime patrol aircraft buzzed the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower at sea in the Middle East last week, passing within 1,000 yards of the ship, but American defense officials sought to downplay the encounter as relatively common.
The Iranian navy Fokker F27 turboprop reconnaissance plane had been flying near the Eisenhower Strike Group for about 20 minutes before it made its low pass on April 21, according to a defense official who was not authorized to talk publicly about the incident and asked not to be identified. The official did not know if the Eisenhower took any defensive actions, such as changing course or ordering its fighters to escort the intruder away. No one was hurt and the Iranian aircraft soon retired.
The Eisenhower and its escorts had been tracking the Fokker surveillance plane the entire time, the defense official said; it didn’t try to pop up from low altitude or surprise them. There was no information about exactly where the encounter took place — for example, in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Oman — but the official said it happened in “international waters.”
“From our perspective, this is not something to get excited about — this is not out of the ordinary — this is within the bounds of what has happened in the past,” the official said.
via Source – Navy Times.
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All of the present problems with Social Security, illegal emigrants, financial crooks, poverty and health care have been slid onto the back burner for the past 40 years. Now those that caused all this expect President Obama to perform multiple miracles immediately and fix everything. I respect the man for taking on such a task and for the bold, unpopular action he has and is taking.
Lets give him a chance to do what others have ignored and added to the problems simply to assure their getting elected again because they took no public and/or unpopular action when they should have.
Priorities such as Vietnam, union busting and belief in an insulting of our intelligence ‘trickle down ‘ theory have failed miserably. Time for a genuine ‘people person’ which this president is proving to be.