[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 116 (Thursday, July 11, 2019)]
[House]
[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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