Filipino Monkey

What is, you may ask, a Filipino Monkey? Well, although technically the little guy in the picture is a Filipino monkey, he's not the Filipino Monkey I am referring to.

Let's rewind to Sunday, January 6, 2008 when U.S. Navy warships encountered five Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats. A four minute video (two minutes of which was shown on Sky News) was produced regarding the encounter. Some proclaim the video is a fabrication. Al Jazeera is careful to explain that Iran downplays that it was a provocation against the U.S. Navy. The American Media, with the USS Cole attack still fresh in their minds, report that the Iranians were a heartbeat from being blown up.

Oops, rewind. Shouldn't the headline have been that the American ships were taunted?

And then there is this little piece of information, which is in the above linked ABC News article, that people conveniently forgot. According to a Navy intelligence report on the incident, the Iranians radioed, "I am coming at you. You will blow up in a couple of minutes."

Now is the interesting part. Was it the Iranians that radioed that threat, or another source?

It is possible that the radio transmission that made the threat was by a locally famous heckler known among ship drivers as the “Filipino Monkey.”

Now, that transmission (I am coming for you. You will explode in a few minutes) may have been coordinated with the speedboats. Or, it may have been the heckler capitalizing on the situation, for the fun of it. The voice in the audio sounded different from the Iranian Officer shown speaking to the cruiser Port Royal over a radio from a small open boat in the video released by Iranian authorities.

One wonders if what happened in the Hormuz Straight on January 6 is no more than a misunderstanding, a prank (after all, we really don't know how many Filipino Monkeys there are), or a dry run for the next attack on U.S. warships in the style of the attack on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000.

Regardless of the radio transmissions authenticity, the approaching boats were showing aggressive behavior, and the voice on the radio proclaimed that the ships were being attacked.

I am sure it was the current rules of engagement that held back the commanders from blowing those boats out of the water, but next time, it may not be a joke.

Next time they need to blast any vessel exhibiting aggressive behavior out of the water - because next time they might be weighed down with enough explosives to blow a hole in the side of one of our warships.

Added note: Commenters on the ABC site mentioned the Gulf of Tonkin. . . Give me a break. How stupid can you be? Do you really believe the U.S. is trying to pick a fight with Iran? That would be almost as stupid as your idiotic comment.