I heard all about the American torpedo attack that sunk the Iranian frigate, Dena, in the Indian Ocean. I couldn’t miss it — multiple channels on YouTube were replaying the footage over and over again. There’s an Iranian warship sailing along, when suddenly it was struck in the stern by a massive explosion that lifted the vessel out of the water, breaking it’s back and leading to its rapid sinking. It was glorious war footage, I guess.
Then Pete Hegseth is on all the news, bragging about the victory and all those dumb, blind Iranian sailors who met their fate at the hands of the brave American navy.
At least 87 sailors were killed in the torpedo attack in international waters in the Indian Ocean, and the Sri Lankan navy responded to the Dena’s distress call and rescued 32 survivors, but 61 members of the crew are still missing. The U.S. didn’t respond to the call, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth crowed about the attack to reporters on Wednesday.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth said, calling it a “quiet death.” As a result of the attack, an Iranian supply tanker that was also near Sri Lanka, the IRIS Bushehr, has taken refuge in the island country.
The news stories, until now, didn’t mention one horrible, ignoble fact.
The U.S. Navy’s attack on an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, on Wednesday was the first time an American submarine has sunk an enemy ship since World War II. But the Dena may not have been armed because it was returning from an international exercise in the Indian Ocean, and the U.S. Navy likely knew it because it was taking part in the same exercise.
Both the United States and Iran were taking part in the MILAN 2026 exercise, organized by the Indian Navy, on February 15–26, with the U.S. sending a maritime patrol aircraft and Iran sending the Dena. Iranian sailors from the ship paraded on land before India’s president.
The exercise in question required ships not to carry any ammunition. Normally, the Dena carries various missiles and guns, including anti-ship missiles. Because the U.S. also took part, it would have been aware that the Dena was unarmed. Former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal accused the attack of being “premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship’s presence in the exercise.”
To add to the United State’s shame, the IRIS Dena immediately sent out a distress call; the Sri Lankan navy responded to rescue survivors. The American navy, despite obviously having a ship nearby, ignored the SOS.
Pete Hegseth is a motherfucking chickenshit coward. “Warfighter,” my ass.
I recently saw a video about the average time to sink a warship in WWII with a torpedo, from first hit to final sinking. It was about 2 hours. So 2 hours to get a few hundred to thousands of sailors into lifeboats or in a position to swim away, and even then, many are likely to die. It’s a horrible way to go.
I had an uncle in the navy in WWII. He was a cook (his name was not Steven Seagal.) He had two ships sunk under him in the war. I never had the opportunity to talk to him about it, but it must have been terrifying.
It gets worse. A lot worse.
The USA managed to destroy a girl’s school in Iran with our bombs.
The death toll was high at around 150 girls dead.
A war crime and an atrocity.
This war is already going off the rails and heading for someplace between failure and darkness.
.1. It is starting to look like a long war. The Pentagon is planning until September, 6 months away.
Trump posted this today.
Iran is a large country with a large population of 93 million.
There is no way we can get unconditional surrender without invading Iran and occupying Tehran.
We did that in Iraq. It cost us a 9 year war that cost $ 2 trillion, 4,500 US lives, over 100,000 Iraqi lives, and lead to the rise of ISIS.
This 4 week war is starting to look like a 4 year war.
.2. Oil is up sharply in the last few days.
Today it is $92/barrel, up from $68 a barrel a week or so ago.
I see gasoline in the SF Bay Area at $5.00 a gallon. Ouch.
A lot of the MAGAs favor the current oversized pickups with large engines and large fuel tanks.
A Ford F-150 or Chevrolet Silverado can have gas tanks that hold 30 gallons.
To fill up their pickup today is going to cost $150.
They aren’t going to be happy about that.
And, it might go even higher. Depends on how long this war lasts and the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.
The exercise in question required ships not to carry any ammunition. … Because the U.S. also took part, it would have been aware that the Dena was unarmed.
Who wants to make a bet that the participating US aircraft had no ammo on board?
PZ wrote: Pete Hegseth is a motherfucking chickenshit coward. “Warfighter,” my ass.
I reply: But, he IS the most revered symbol and model of this current motherfucking chickenshit cowardly tRUMP administration!
The Animals 1965: ‘we gotta get out of this place’
The USA managed to destroy a girl’s school in Iran with our bombs.
The death toll was high at around 150 girls dead.
Don’t forget that there are plenty of other atrocities that are too individually “small” to get real press coverage. A co-worker of mine lost her aunt over there in the initial attack last weekend. Whole house just completely leveled by a bomb, like something out of the Blitz.
.2. Oil is up sharply in the last few days.
This kinda makes you wonder again about the Trump-Russia axis. Low(-ish) oil prices have been hitting them pretty hard, so Trump’s little Iran war is fantastic news for Putin. Every dollar it adds to the price of oil is umpteen more Ukrainians he can murder.
Apparently there’s a critical shortage of anti-drone interceptors and anti-missile missiles in US stockpiles and this was a known problem last year. That’s going to lead to a lot of deaths of US military personnel and civilians.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship”
Mr Hegseth, the correct word is “sank”. Didn’t you learn anything at school?
It is undeniable that the U.S. submarine that fired the torpedo departed the scene without surfacing to pull survivors from the water.
(https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3081&context=ils)
Published by the Stockton Center for International Law
ISSN 2375-2831
Annotated Supplement to the
Commander’s Handbook on the
Law of Naval Operations
The Australian PM while supporting the murder of Iranian schoolgirls has refused to commit the Australian military to assist in the slaughter. Yet the US is using its intelligence and communications base Pine Gap which is on Australian soil to carry out its strikes. Also Australian service personnel are serving on exchange and training with the US military, including on the submarine that sank the Iranian frigate. The PM assures us that they weren’t involved. I guess they must have just been passengers.
#3: OK, we surrender, unconditionally.
We will surrender our leaders for you to treat appropriately.
#3 raven,
“To fill up their pickup today is going to cost $150.
They aren’t going to be happy about that.”
maybe they can protest by slapping stickers of trump pointing & saying ‘i did that!’ on every gas pump
I’m surprised that the sub didn’t surface and machine gun the survivors.
#9 John Morales:
“This section does not apply to public vessels.” 21
Public vessel, in maritime law, being a warship operated by a government. So the law, immoral as it may be, lets them off the hook.
Hegshit may be a warfighter but a completely incompetent one. The jets show down by our so-called allies on the first day were lost because someone forget to tell our allies we were at war. When you put bozos in charge, you have a circus.
Perhaps they should go back to Signal chats so everyone knows what the fuck they think they’re up to.
Hegshsit and the rest of that gang are warmongers.
Robert, I for sure am no expert.
I’ll take your word for it.
(But even if the sub didn’t have to do some rescuing, it could have, no?)
John & Robert — I don’t know what the current “rules of war” spell out, but in 1941 when the British finally caught up with the Bismark and damaged her so badly that the Germans abandoned ship, the Brits managed to rescue 110 men from the water. They stopped operations because there were reports of German submarines in the area.
jack lecou@6–
BBC: US eases sanctions on Russian oil sales to India during Iran conflict
So, yeah.
coffeepott @12
You beat me to it. I just fueled up today and noted the lack of a sticker of Trump pointing out the price on the pump. There were plenty of Biden stickers. My fuel mileage is ok thankfully, but still.
In WWII, as has already been pointed out, once the Bismarck had been sunk the British ships at the scene rescued survivors until they received reports of submarines in the area.
The sinking of the Dena, the failure of the US Navy to meet their legal and professional responsibility to render assistance and the attack on the girls school are potential war crimes and the officers and men responsible should face a court-martial. Unfortunately, while this corrupt administration and Congress still hold power, this is highly unlikely to happen. I just hope that, if the Democrats regain power in the midterms, they find the backbone to actually do something about it rather than just talk,
Article 41 – Safeguard of an enemy hors de combat
A person who is recognized or who, in the circumstances, should be recognized to be ‘ hors de combat ‘ shall not be made the object of attack.
A person is ‘ hors de combat ‘ if:
(a) he is in the power of an adverse Party;
(b) he clearly expresses an intention to surrender; or
(c) he has been rendered unconscious or is otherwise incapacitated by wounds or sickness, and therefore is incapable of defending himself;
provided that in any of these cases he abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape.
When persons entitled to protection as prisoners of war have fallen into the power of an adverse Party under unusual conditions of combat which prevent their evacuation as provided for in Part III, Section I, of the Third Convention, they shall be released and all feasible precautions shall be taken to ensure their safety.
— Geneva Conventions of 1949, Additional Protocols and their Commentaries
Gavin Newsom…or someone in his name…posted a meme about Trump being charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court or some such. Not true, of course, but I think he’s eligible, as well as several of his main advisors: JD, Hegshit, Miller, maybe Rubio although he hasn’t been very prominent in this fiasco. If he did get charged for some such, perhaps they can mock up a statue to give him, like a gallows. He would probably gloat about him.
The attack on Iran itself was undoubtedly illegal under international law. Specifically, it violates the conditions the UN Charter places on the resort to war, which it permits only with the approval of the UNSC, or when a state has been attacked or an attack on it is imminent. Hence everything US forces have done in the way of attacking Iran or its assets (such as the Dena) is a war crime. And also a crime under US law, since treaties ratified by the Senate have the status of US federal law.
The “imminent attack” exception may be the reason Rubio made that bizarre statement that the USA attacked because it knew Israel was about to do so, and concluded that Iran would retaliate against American bases; he was claiming an attack was imminent. Even if true, this no more meets the conditions imposed by the Charter than you could legally assault someone because your pal was about to do so, and that might provoke their victim to hit you. In any case, Trump repudiated the claim, presumably because this shifted the “glory” from him to Netanyahu; he claimed the USA forced Israel into attacking, not vice versa.
do according to the terms of the exercise, we were supposed to be unarmed as well, right? did i get that right?
The attack on Iran is obviously illegal.
The attack on an Iranian warship wouldn’t be if the war were legal. It’s still a military vessel, even if not currently armed.
The attack on a school is complicated. Bombing a school full of kids that the military planners know is full of kids is clearly illegal. Bombing a building that happens to be a school full of kids, if the planners are trying to avoid doing that but they just suck at their jobs, that is not necessarily illegal under humanitarian law (which is the laws about who you’re allowed to kill in a war — military types love euphemisms).
Whether it’s illegal or not is pretty much irrelevant though. A hundred-ish girls are dead either way. And the people responsible aren’t getting charged either way, because the US operates under the rule of might makes right.