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[Page H5592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ANTICS OF THE IRANIAN NAVY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Olson) for 5 minutes.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, this should come as no surprise, but the
world's champion crybaby, the Islamic Republic of Iran, threw another
hissy fit this week.
Their navy tried to hijack a British tanker with a Royal Navy escort.
They admitted they were breaking international law because they
demanded the ship drive itself into their waters to be boarded.
The Royal Navy frigate fired back with a salvo from a radio. They
said: ``Back off.''
The Iranian babies put their boats at full speed, roaring back to
Iran to cry on the Ayatollah's shoulder for their humiliation.
This has happened over and over. And I am very familiar with this
region. I deployed there in the Navy for 6 months, from May of 1994 to
November of 1994.
I was based on a small island called Masirah right off the shore of
the United Arab Emirates. We would fly what is called a gulf transit
1,000 feet all around the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to
exercise our freedom of navigation.
This is not the first time these things have happened. The last
attack happened right there where the baby is crying. Two months before
that, off the map down there, four American tankers, at idle, sitting
in dead water waiting to unload their cargo, were attacked by Iranian
boats, damaged.
In the middle of the Persian Gulf, international airspace, right
there near the Gulf of Oman, one of our airplanes was blown out of the
sky by the Iranians.
That was an act of war.
Ours was an American military aircraft operating legally in
international airspace over international waters.
The question is: Why are the insane Iranians becoming more insane?
And that is because the Mullahs who have run their country now for 50
years know they are dying. And, like a dying animal, they are going to
fight for their last breath of power.
They are dying because of America, the American energy revolution,
started primarily and thriving in Texas and the Permian Basin.
Oil is their only source of money in the entire country of Iran. They
have nothing else.
The Permian Basin, by itself, next year will produce more oil than
every country in the world except for Saudi Arabia.
We have many more shale plains across America: Barnett, Eagle Ford,
Bakken, Marcellus--over and over and over.
{time} 1045
They know we are putting them in the dumpsters of history. Uncle Sam
is forcing the mullahs and the leaders of the military to learn new
languages, new words to explain their demise, words like ``good-bye,''
``ta-ta,'' ``adieu,'' ``adios,'' and ``sayonara'' to go with
``khodahafez,'' which, in Farsi, means ``good-bye.''
I want to salute the people of Iran. The dark times are going to end
quickly. You will be free from oppression from the leaders in your own
country.
I would like to give a salute to the mullahs and the Iranian Navy and
the military. Good-bye. Adios.
And that's just the way it is.
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