Monday, January 07, 2008
The Iranian "provocation"
The U.S. government (and, following right along, the U.S. media) have declared that the Iranian navy acted in an "unnecessarily provocative" manner today. It's been almost impossible from what has appeared in print so far to determine exactly where this "provocation" happened, but combining the map from the New York Times article with a more detailed map from here gives this:
Note that this location appears to be less than 10 miles from the coast of Iran. And who is sailing by? Three American warships including two destroyers.
Provocation? Yes, I'd say there was a "provocation" in the Gulf (and there has been, almost continuously, for years). But it wasn't on the part of five small Iranian speedboats. American troops aren't the only part of the American military who should get the hell out of the Middle East.
I do have to add that the Iranian side has its own problems on this occasion. Iran says they didn't recognize the warships and that the problem was resolved when the warships identified themselves. Really? How many warships from how many countries are sailing into the Persian Gulf, exactly?
