Maine Owl

Evidently the Republican candidates would bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

Greenwald has an incredible array of the reactionary jingoism. The speedboat incident was well-tailored for the South Carolina primary debate.

Fred Thompson took the cake with this applause line, "...one more step, you know, and they would have been introduced to those virgins they're looking forward to seeing."

The incident also worked for President Bush, as while in Kuwait he warned Iran of "serious consequences" if it did attack US warships in the Strait of Hormuz. The AFP story linked plays up the "weekend face-off" as if these speedboats were some kind of military threat.

Apparently Vice Admiral Cosgriff of the US Navy is the only American official, candidate, or commentator who has a level head:

Admiral Cosgriff: Neither anti-ship missiles nor torpedoes, and I wouldn't characterize the posture of the US 5th Fleet as afraid of these ships or these three US ships afraid of these small boats. Our ships were making a normal transit of the Strait of Hormuz. They followed the procedures they've been trained to follow to increase their own readiness in the face of events like this, and as the Iranian behavior continued during this interaction, our ships stepped through there, increased readiness, the pace. And I didn't get the sense from the reports I was receiving that there was a sense of being afraid of these five boats.

Of course he does not explain why a fleet of large, heavily-armed American ships need to lurk near the coast of Iran. And it's just a wee bit suspicious that this media event happens just as President Bush went on the teevee in Israel promising to defend against an Iranian strike.

Democracy Now! says that the US position on the incident has started to "unravel."

Update: Juan Cole posted "US Video of Iran Speedboats Doctored; Iranians Charge Fabrication"