In addition to the recent Gulf of Tonkin revelations, another good comparison would be the forged documents supposedly indicating that Saddam Hussein tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. It seems nobody in the media ever was concerned with who forged them, who is lying us into war. Somebody's doing it again.

I am honestly amazed that there is anyone out who could possibly have a sense of professional or personal pride as a member of the armed forces at this point. It's just one clusterf*** after another with these people. Between the lies and the incompetence and the obvious disregard for the health and well-being of the rank-and-file (both in and out of theatre), how can anyone outside of the Pentagon go to work for the U.S. military day in and day out with any sense of dignity at all?

Sounds to me like it had the potential to be the same thing. At least this time it appears to be downplayed, and will hopefully not produce any violent results. It is surprising in the current hyper-military climate that cooler heads could ever prevail in the Middle East region.

I'd really love to know who provided the mysterious voice of the "Iranians." Sounds suspiciously like someone trying to supply "what a terrorist would say." If it really is some prankster, they have a very well-developed dark sense of humor...

Quick - was G. Gordon Liddy involved?

The incompetence is unbelievable. Laughable, if so much wasn't at stake.

The first thing I recalled wasn't the Gulf of Tonkin but when the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988. Iranian gunboats had been behaving similarly, putting the ship's inexperienced crew on edge. They mistook the radar blip for an incoming fighter and launched missiles. What a disaster.

Anyway, I'm reluctant to place the blame on the military in this case. When you have large US forces maneuvering around in semi-hostile waters, with 20-year olds manning the stations, how can you not get into these situations. A midshipman mistaking a foreign voice on the radio as Iranian and coming from the boats seems far less serious than mistaking a passenger jet from an incoming fighter and shooting it down, yet that is exactly what happened. I could believe that this was the crew's initial determination. I'll save my criticism for the people who put them in this situation.

This administration is clearly going to continue their imperialist agenda and violate our Constitution, country and citizens to the bitter end. Anyone in Congress not demanding impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney are as guilty of violating our Constitution as are the President and VP.

Jill

to entertain the idea that five Iranian speedboats could credibly threaten a US Navy warship.

It would appear that I have been vindicated.

The "We're coming at you. Your ships will explode in a couple of minutes." quote just didn't pass my BS filter.

When I watched the videos of the US and Iranian boat interaction yesterday, I, too, had an immediate give-me-a-break moment when I heard the Boris Karloff-imitation voice, loud and clear and completely static-free on the tape.

If you haven't seen one or more versions of the video, by all means check them out, and decide for yourself if the verbalized threat in question doesn't sound like it was delivered by some actor in a second-rate Hollywood horror flick.

KR

And on, and on...

this stuff is horrifying. do you have secret service protection too, glenn?

also ... i look forward to your thoughts on this:

And at least once, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation — the highly secretive and sensitive cases that allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies — "was halted due to untimely payment."

"We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," according to the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

You really have to be a kool-aid drinker

to entertain the idea that five Iranian speedboats could credibly threaten a US Navy warship.

Do you remember the USS Cole? A speedboat loaded with explosives, rammed into the side of a warship could pose a significant threat. No question.

I doubt the Iranian Navy would engage in such tactics, but you would have to agree the threat is there. My problem is in cases such as this one, where the actual threat seems to be trumped up out of nothing. I sincerely doubt the Iranian Government is as suicidally insane as they are portrayed by the current administration. We've been over this road with them before in the Persian Gulf, and they've always had their asses handed to them.

With the current administration clearly spoiling for a fight, I'd doubt the Iranians would be so stupid as to hand them a valid self-defense pretext on a silver platter like this.

You really have to be a kool-aid drinker

to entertain the idea that five Iranian speedboats could credibly threaten a US Navy warship.

No, no. You'd have to be nuts to fly an attack aircraft or sail a large ship at the US Navy because that's the threat they're designed for. The only thing that's done any serious damage to US Navy in the Gulf was the speedboat attack on the USS Cole. You can bet that has been drummed into the young sailor's heads.

And it isn't obvious from the shots I've seen that the boats are Iranian at first. It's the confusion that takes over.

I agree that the claims of the Iranian boats dropping the white boxes are highly suspect. For that to be effective, the Iranians would have to cross the paths of the US ships in front of them. From all of the video I have watched, which presumably has the most "incriminating" snippets from the Navy, the Iranian boats cross behind or remain alongside.

It also doesn't appear to me that they approach closely enough to be considered serious suicide craft similar to the USS Cole incident.

snark

Here is the best close-up I have found of one of the Iranian craft:

http://www.remotecentral.com/dvd/stuart-3.jpg

/snark