IRAN HARRASSES AMERICAN NAVY

We were very close to taking them out. Do they really want to start a war with us?

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.

U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. ''It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: ''We urge the Iranians to
refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in
the future.''

The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday as a U.S. Navy
cruiser, destroyer and frigate were on their way into the Persian Gulf and
passing through the strait -- a major oil shipping route.

Five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.

There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away ''literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire'' in self defense.

The official said he didn't have the precise transcript of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians radioed something like ''we're coming at you and you'll explode in a couple minutes.''

Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment Monday,
and there was no news of the incident on Iranian state-run media.

They dropped "boxes" in front of our ships. Of course, our guys couldn't have known the contents of those boxes. They could have been bombs.

This was a probing exercise. They want to see how far they can push us.

Question, how did they know when they went too far? They turned back just as we were about to take them out? Was that mere luck?

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: THESE ARE THE FRUITS OF APPEASEMENT:

It's no accident they pull crap like this weeks after the NIE. Appeasement always engenders more adventurism.

Now we must send a very clear message. And maybe it should be kinetic.