JMH

It is interesting that Iran, for the second time, has chosen to capture British Naval personnel, perhaps they do not have any respect for British Sea power, short of using Trident, all the British could retaliate with is: A few Tomahawk Cruise missiles launched from Submarines, a few air strikes with a small number of fighters and harriers and shore bombardment with 4.5 inch guns. Only the US Navy and the USAF have enough firepower available in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and Middle East to wipe out Iran. Iran perceives the west as divided, corrupt, decadent, weak and indecisive and for the most part they are correct. For right in the middle of this crisis the US Congress is displaying this weakness to Iran by initiating a vote to withdraw US forces from Iraq while those forces are still engaged in battle against terrorists and militia's that Iran supports, trains and equips with weapons, munitions and IED's. If this outrageous act, the capture of the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel, is not met with a harsh overwhelming response (of course this would have to come from the US) than Iran will continue to engage in increasingly provocative acts of brinkmanship to show the rest of the Muslim world how weak and indecisive the west is in the hope to scare the United Nations into backing down on sanctions against Iran (the UN won't pass the sanctions for fear that Iran would retaliate by torturing the British Naval personnel they have captured) while at the same time buying time for the US Democratic party to secure victory for Iran by forcing the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. But with President Bush in office, hopefully the Iranians will not get the tepid, weak response that they have come to expect from the US, as was demonstrated by President Carter during the Iranian hostage crisis.