Way Off Base...

Columnist Ralph Peters is, in a word, mistaken in his assessment of a recent altercation between three US warships and Iranian gunboats. In a recent piece he wrote for the New York Post he claims that the US is weak and indecisive because our ships didn't fire upon the Iranians. He also claims that what really matters is what the Iranians think of the situation because now they think we're afraid of them.

So?

So what if Iran thinks we're afraid of them? How often has an enemy badly misjudged their opponent, only to find themselves out numbered and out gunned? No, I have to argue that what really matters is that the US informed the world at large that yes, the United States can, and does, show some restraint in exercising its military might even when provoked.

Certainly we could have opened fire on those boats. We probably would have sunk every one of them, but to what end? The sailors on those boats would have just ended up martyrs, and it would have given Iran just one more excuse to use in their arguments that the US is evil. In other words, it was a no win situation from a political and diplomatic perspective for the US. Iran would have tried to use the situation to further their agenda regardless of what action the US would have taken and, indeed, they already are.

Furthermore, I find Mr. Peters' choice of wording interesting. He says:

"...When will we learn that resolute action taken early saves vast amounts of blood and treasure later?"

Treasure? What treasure exactly are we trying to save? How exactly does starting yet another war with a country that we have no reason to go to war with save "vast amounts of blood"?

Mr. Peters then goes on to claim that the recent National Intelligence Estimate that stated that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program several years ago is wrong, and that they didn't and are still enriching uranium for that purpose. What I want to know is how does he know this? He may well be correct, but how does he know? He could be wrong too.

If Iran thinks we're weak and defeated they are sorely mistaken. In fact, Iran is making a huge mistake if they are equating our lack of desire to go to war with them as an indication of fear. We're not afraid of them, we simply have no reason to go to war with them. Certainly we have voiced our opposition to their uranium enrichment program, but as long as they continue to do so for peaceful purposes (i.e. nuclear energy) there's no reason for the US to attack them, and that is a far cry from the kinds of intimidation tactics that Iran has been employing.

No, if anything Iran is afraid of the US. Who knows, they might have good reason to be. After all, we did invade Iraq on faulty intelligence and are now embroiled in a war with no clear objective. It's like those people who instead of admitting to their fear, act out and cause trouble because they don't know how else to behave. It's the kind of mentality that says "He's probably going to hit me, so I'm going to hit him first!" even though no one was going to hit anyone in the first place.

The bottom line is that Iran would be incredibly stupid to start a war with the US, especially if they used nuclear weapons. For starters, the US would come at them with a ferocity not seen since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Additionally, the rest of the world would band behind the US for something like that. No one wants to see nuclear weapons used, and quite frankly the US has vastly superior firepower when it comes to conventional warfare, and our nuclear capability is years ahead of the Iranians.

I don't think it will come to that. Tehran isn't stupid, and while I think their logic is faulty and they talk a good talk, I also think it would be a huge mistake to underestimate them. That said I think Mr. Peters is way off base in his assessment of the events that transpired in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians have a history of harassing US warships as they pass through the strait, in fact, they did more or less the same thing when my ship passed through back in my Navy days, and my ship wasn't even technically a war ship. It amounts to a dare on the part of the Iranians, nothing more. The US didn't bite, and instead of berating and questioning the decisions of the captains of those ships for their actions (or non-action) we should be congratulating them for keeping a level head and making an appropriate decision in a situation where they couldn't possibly hope to win politically.