[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by blueash

Let me review the history of that event.

"On January 12, 2016, two United States Navy riverine command boats were seized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy after they entered Iranian territorial waters near Iran's Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf. Initially, the U.S. military claimed the sailors inadvertently entered Iranian waters owing to mechanical failure, but it was later reported that they entered Iranian waters because of navigational errors.[3] The U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, called the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif within five minutes. His call was followed by multiple other phone calls between the two ministers. The sailors had a brief verbal exchange with the Iranian military and were released, unharmed, 15 hours later. "

To summary, our ship illegally entered the territorial water of Iran. The ship was captured and within a few hours the sailors were released. And you call that feckless? What should we have done, other than maybe stayed out of their waters. The Iranian Navy if it followed the just issued orders from our side, would have sunk our ships and all souls lost. What country acted with restraint in this story? Did diplomacy show its value? Some people only see what they want to see and disregard the rest.

IF they could, but it's doubtful we would give them the chance

Originally Posted by blueash

The US Navy decided to conduct live fire training exercises in the North Persian Gulf. I am sure we stayed just outside the territorial waters of Iran. We were making a point that we have big boats and big guns, and big aircraft.


What would the US do if Iran's navy, if they had one, decided to hold a live fire training exercise 13 miles from our coast? I think the response of Iran was muted sending a few speedboats to loop around our ships.

Time to wag the dog?

Who cares. The point is we can do it off their waters and there is really nothing they can do about it