Some Good News

On Friday, American Military News reported that the United States Marshals Service (USMS), with the help of state and local agencies, located 225 endangered missing children during a 10-week operation in states across the nation.

The article reports:

Operation We Will Find You is a nationwide effort to locate missing children, according to a USMS press release. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children supported the recovery of 169 children and the safe location of 56 children.

The USMS said it referred 28 cases to law enforcement due to suspected criminal activity, including drugs and weapons, sex trafficking and sex offender violations.

“The U.S. Marshals Service is fully committed to the important mission of protecting the American people, especially our most vulnerable population – our children,” Ronald Davis, Director of the Marshals Service, said in a statement. “The results of this operation underscore that commitment, but also highlight the necessity of these critical efforts. Our continued success can only be achieved through our collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies, and partnership with NCMEC. Together, the USMS and NCMEC have recovered over 3,100 missing children since the passage of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act in 2015.”

The operation was held in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Michigan, Washington, Florida, California, Ohio, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ten of the children located were found in Mexico, the USMS said.

The article concludes:

The USMS said the missing children located during Operation We Will Find You involved “high-risk factors” including victimization of child sex trafficking, child exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse and medical or mental health conditions.

Thank God for the dedication of the people who took part in this operation.

This Is A Dangerous Game

Yesterday American Military News posted an article (and pictures) about a group of Iranian warships playing ‘chicken’ with American warships in international waters of the North Arabian Gulf. That is a dangerous game.

The article reports:

The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said late Wednesday that 11 Iranian ships harassed multiple U.S. warships in international waters today, and captured the dangerous encounter in photos and a video.

USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3), USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60), USS Firebolt (PC 10), USS Sirocco (PC 6), USCGC Wrangell (WPB 1332) and USCGC Maui (WPB 1304) were conducting joint operations along with U.S. Army AH-64E Apache helicopters when the encounter occurred.

The Iranian vessels came within 10 yards of USCGC Maui’s bow, and 50 yards from USS Lewis B. Puller. U.S. ships were forced to take action to avoid colliding with Iranian boats.

U.S. crews issued radio warnings, five blasts from ships’ horns, and sounded acoustic noise makers, but were ignored by Iranian crews.

After an hour, Iranian crews finally responded and turned away from the U.S. warships.

“The IRGCN’s dangerous and provocative actions increased the risk of miscalculation and collision, were not in accordance with the internationally recognized Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) ‘rules of the road’ or internationally recognized maritime customs, and were not in accordance with the obligation under international law to act with due regard for the safety of other vessels in the area,” U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.

There are a number of possible motives for this harassment of American ships. If the Iranian government can focus its population on a common enemy, the Iranian people might overlook the severe economic problems the country is currently having. Also, if the Iranian government can drag America into a war in the Middle East, that will significantly drain America’s wealth and resources. We have seen that principle at work for the past twenty years. Either way, Iran is playing a dangerous game–they are not dealing with Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter–they are dealing with a President who believes in America and its right to defend itself. I expect there will be some reaction to this from the White House. We may not see it–it may happen behind closed doors, but I do believe President Trump will hold Iran accountable for their actions.