The US is getting more scared that ever - some one hits us we then go into a meeting to see what we done wrong - go figure.......

Gulf of Tonkin, anyone?

too bad they didn't follow through :(

Brings to mind the phrase "walking on thin ice? This is the kind of thing that because of some hot shot boat commander (Iran's in this case), can start a war by being so damned stupid!

I am suspicious. I'm afraid that Bush WANTS to provoke an incident so that he will have a reason to invade Iran. Since the nuclear weapon scare proved to be a lie, he appears to be looking for other opportunities. I pray that cooler and wiser heads prevail, and this is not allowed to happen.

Could be these Iranians are just idiots, or maybe it's a case of practice makes perfect.

of my god, what is going on, please, teach these wackos a lesson and give your crew some target practice. This is clearly beyond normal behavior for non-threatening encounter. Give them 1000 yards, in a formal diplo. letter and then start firing,

Sounds like some hyperbole from both sides. Kudos to the Navy commander who DIDN'T fire like the Pentagon wished he had. Obviously it wasn't necessary, and escalation was avoided. But the Pentagon WANTS escalation against Iran, of course, and I do hope the press is careful not to help them manufacture it.

They should have pulled the trigger!!

There has been no verification that any of this actually happened. ABCNEWS has to quote ANONYMOUS military sources to get their 'information'? The supposed radio transmission "MAY" have originated from an Iranian vessel? Where are the video tapes of the incident? Where are the audio records of the radio transmission? White boxes were dropped, but the Navy has no idea what was in them?? You mean they didn't take one as evidence?!

What if US military intelligence broadcast the message in order to frame Iran? What if there wasn't even a message broadcast, and this is all propaganda? What if no 'white boxes' were actually dropped? What if all this is war mongering propaganda, which is extremely likely. Five 'speedboats' are hardly a match for a fleet of Navy destroyer vessels, and 200 yards is hardly a threatening distance. This propaganda needs to be stopped now, before the neo-conservative wackos are able to manufacture another conflict in the middle east.

The lead up to the Iraq war saw the same exact kinds of bogus propaganda spewed out by the Pentagon to initiate the conflict. It is alarming that CNN and ABCNEWS would publish these events as fact without independent verification!!

Our government WANTS to go to war with Iran.

"...all [Iranian speedboards] were behaving as if they were packed with explosives"

And what is that supposed to mean?? How does a boat 'behave' when it is packed with explosives?

The war mongering propaganda reinvigorating itself here today is beyond ridiculous. Please quote some more anonymous military sources who will gladly tell you the Iranian boats were packed with nuclear weapons. Then maybe the neo-conservatives will get their wish to attack another country granted. And the price of oil will rise to $300/barrel, and Blackwater will be able to place another 100,000 employees in Iran, and the defense contractors will be able to build another 3 years worths of missiles, and all of the cronies will get even richer.

Merely bravado and this isn't the first instance. Is a rogue Iranian Naval leader responsible for this or is this Iranian policy?

Someone please explain to me how a boat speeding towards a ship and telling them they are about to blow up in a couple of minutes is considered 'ordindary'?

1987-1988 - Opeartion Ernest Will/Operation Praying Mantis - the Iranians tried to do the same thing. Almost to the same exact date 20 years ago. We sunk them then and should do it again.

Tonkin Gulf

Remember, Islam is a religion of peace...

If you wonder what this is all about Google "the gulf of tonkin"

This pentagon official sounds brilliant

they are some lucky morons, all it would take would be about a 2 second burst from those 3 american ships (fairly wimpy as they are comparatively speaking) and there wouldnt be a piece of those iranians bigger than a dime or so to be found ....

"I've never seen a provocation like this is in international waters," another military official who has served for more than 25 years said.

Might I remind this military official about USS Liberty? Or maybe your lackeys turning their guns upon you doesn't count.

Very stupid on the part of Tehran...the Iranians are lucky their boats and crew were not disintegrated...

Maybe the US should stop surrounding Iran with Military! What right does the US have to be in that region? They are doing nothing but bringing war. I can only imagine how radically & violently the US would react if it were surrounded by the Chinese or the Russians on all sides. Iran has every right to protect it's sovereignty in the region & keep hostile forces at bay.

Can anyone say Gulf of Tonkin. This is similar way the United States got into the war with North Vietnam. Iran is flexing there mini boat muscle to attempt to make us look like the aggressor. This was in international waters and thus we should use the UN to show the cause we have before us. Its easy to start a war with anyone its even harder to restrain ourselves from another one that we can not AFFORD. And Iran knows this. Iran wants to keep pushing us to make them look tough against us to there radical segment of people in there country.

Do you have any idea the price of crude would be if we drop even a single bomb on Iran. People our country has put a strangle hold on themselves due to the dependent nature we face with oil.

This is very scary turn of events people. But don't get me wrong if Iran wants to cross that line and start something with our ships. By all means make parking lots of every major miltary base they have.

But the military must keep a level head like we did during the Cuban missile crisis. We can't not afford to get into a fight with Iran. Our economy is by no means strong enough.

Wonder how Americans would feel if Iran had ships right off the coast of Florida.

Wouldn't like it would ya,

Bush is praying that he can start a war with Iran this year..He wants nothing better..This is his last year to play tin soldier..Maybe he will send Condi Rice over there and she will straighten every thing out like she has done in the past..Which is absolutely nothing, zero, nada. This is the Gulf Of Tonkin all over again..It worked for LBJ why not the Liar-In-Chief?? He is hoping anyway.

Good for us... Iran is looking to bait us into violent actions. They want us to react/attack so they can begin the next phase of the plan, which is to play the victims in an attempt to gain more international support and wage war against our troops and our country. They may have had some "behind closed doors" talks with Russia and are hoping that they will get their support. I think we just exposed them and had their plan backfire though. It will be obvious to others that Iran is playing games, so it will be tough for Iran to find the support it needs to even come close to being a real military threat for us. Next time, we won't show as much restraint, so Iran should consider itself very lucky right now. Please don't give those good ol' boys, Bush & Dick, a reason to come over and take a bit of your "texas tea". They're on the way out... they'd love a nice parting "bonus" as they exit.

There was a misprint in the story-- it was Iranian swift boats, not speedboats.

THE COLE WAS BOMBED BY A SPEEDBOAT AND IT WAS LETHAL, HOW SOON THE LIBS FORGET! CARRY ON!

Pay attention "Jazz," the US has every right to be in those waters seeing as they are INTERNATIONAL waters.

Most of you, I'd bet, have never been in the Strait of Hormuz, so you basically don't really have a cl;ear idea of what you talk about (Eric). In my experience in the Strait and Gulf, the Iranians do like to taunt and use threatening actions towards the US ships. 200 yards IS very close, btw; it is a threatening distance, and the American crew, from what I've heard, responded appropriately.

It seems the Iranian navy hasn't learned their lesson since the last bungle. I'm glad these sailors manned the guns rather than surrendering like those Brits awhile back.

We should stay away from them. We are terrorizing the rest of the world and they are starting to fight back and have been for quite some time. Don't screw this up Washington! Bring our people home.

The speed boats are controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, a militant organization that seized innocent British sailors in international waters several months ago. It is only logical that these nut-cases are testing U.S. limits as well.

The Iranian government's own propaganda calls themselves an "ascending power" and the U.S. & British "declining powers." The Revolutionary Guards may be buying into their own BS.

Sounds Like Both sides are on the
verge of War,sounds as if Bush is
wanting a reason to go to War with
Iran,Both sides seem to be getting
trigger happy,it wont be long, some one will slip and cause a major war we may not be able to win that would fire up the tMiddl east were already fighting in other places with troop shortage.

The Iranians are testing us.

Does anyone remember the USS Cole. I believe it was a speedboat packed with explosives that rammed the side. 200 yards is entirely too close. Next time i hope they blow em out of the water, and explain later.

And Rubiconski, its called "international waters" meaning our ships have every right to be there. Wake up man.

yep....this is what I expect from the "blame America first" crowd. you people just don't get it and probably never will. there are people in the world who want us dead, and that includes you.

Rubiconski....Ummmmm, the difference is the Americans are the GOOD GUYS! I know its hard to believe.....moron

The "right" Rubin? So the US should not be in that region? So how big an area should the US not be in? Does it encompass the entire Middle East? So the US should not be in International waters?
My God you are a blithering idiot. BTW Rubin the US was surrounded by Communists on all sides once. Remember West Berlin?
Seems that the Russians and East Germans were doing all the shooting.

What scares me more than the actual incident is that so many commenters "know" what happened, or didn't happen, or why it happened the way it did. None of us were there. To assume "Gulf of Tonkin" is rediculous; today's warships have video and other surveillance technology that could easily prove the incident occurred (or didn't). Why make this public and then not be able to back the assertions?

Sounds like too many blue-staters believe that America would try to begin a war with Iran but that Iran would never try to begin a war with us.

C'mon, folks. Lets let this all play out before we cast aspersions on our government.

We're never as right as we believe, nor are we as wrong as others believe. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

I think you people talking bad about my America should be arrested for treason.Support this great country or move to Iran ..Its a pitty i must share my air with you .

Remember the USS Cole!!!

I agree with an earlier poster, send a diplomatic note to Iran cc-ing the rest of the world (so no cry babies afterwards) of 1000 yards or bye bye! 200 yards is way to close for boats speeding directly towards you and forcing evasive manuevers.

jesus christ...Bush will not stop until he gets his war in Iran...people we only have 1 yr left of him, and he is more determined to have this war in Iran then the American people are of putting an end to this madness. We can stop him, we have to group together and have him impeached...he's gonna kill us all!

I'll see your "Gulf of Tonkin" and raise you one "USS Cole".

International waters mean every nation has access to the area. This would include nations such as the U.S. which has strategic interests in maintaining the free flow of oil for itself and its allies. It is difficult to understand that Iran would seek to provoke the destruction of its military vessels but we need to take action if they miscalculate in order to insure no further incidents like the USS Cole. This recklessness of the Iranian forces could encourage future miscalculations on their own part. The United States Navy should not become a victim and even the surrender vendors from the Libertarian and Democratic parties should not be so fast to look for votes if the Iranians come to harm.

1) They were in international waters. The US has every right to be there.

2) 200 yards is a very threatening distance. The closing rate of a speedboat and a destroyer at that distance is when you factor in that the gunner would only have a few seconds to acquire his target and avert disaster. An explosive vessel within 100 yards would do damage to innocent sailors.

3) To believe that there is no threat in Iran is just ignorant. You don’t have to be a “right wing wacko” to use common sense. Give it a try sometime.

Rubiconski, the US military ships were in INTERNATIONAL WATERS near the Straight of Hormuz. And you think that US ships shouldn't be there, protecting GLOBAL SHIPPING from harm?? I'm sure most of us here in the US would LOVE if some other country stepped up to the plate FOR ONCE and did something proactive to protect the world from danger. But of course, everyone in other countries talk a good game, and bash America while at it (it's become such a fun sport), but never step up and act. How long do you think the Straight of Hormuz would remain free and safe without US military in the area?

Pay attenion, BADGE, the poster's name is placed BENEATH the post, not at the top of it...

Boy, I hate liberals!!!!

The damn Iranians have been provoking us since they took hostages in 1979. Our ships were in INTERNATIONAL waters and have the right to be there. They also have the right to defend themselves and I imagine they will next round. The Iranians have been poking at us for far too long and if anything nasty happens agin' them they only have themselves to blame. I love our military damnit!!!!!!Go Buckeyes!!!
I couldn't resist.

When things like this happen the Navy needs to give one warning and then blow them out of the water long before they get within 20 feet

is the navy going to start acting like the english when they let their boats be taken hostage?

Blow them out of the water and let the Iranians explain why they instigated the action.

We dont need to elevate the tensions or activity but our men need to be able to protect themselves

I second Marilyn's,Eric's's and especially Rubiconski's posting.Let us not start another war.
Lets build back our Country.

I guess by ABC news tonight, it will George Bush's and the USA's fault.

It's all propaganda, Iran is not stupid enough to do something so unusual. Bush and his "Keystone Cop" administration thinks that we are dumb enough to believe their BS. I think Bush is trying to get out of going to the mid east. He is supposed to leave tomorrow, only a moron President would go where is is so hated a week after a political assassanation has already occured. I pray that Dr. Ron Paul becomes our Commander in Chief.

Wow! It is apparent by the absolutely I hate USA comments, that ABC must be only read by foreigners or Liberals.

People are responding as though Iran has more credibility than our own nation. Good Lord, this David guy responding at 1:41 actually thinks that letting small boats from another country get within 200 yards of our ships is okay. Apparently he doesn't understand that these scum bags use suicidal scum to blow themselves and other things up. Hey David, how many yards would be sufficient for you? Or is the evidence you need, a sunken ship? No that wouldn't work for your kind either, you'd blame that on our own military.

Then you have this Jazz person at 2.22, asking of what right do we have for our Navy to be in that region. Hey Jazz, we import oil from that region, we have allies in that region, we have soldiers in that region, etc. Isn't that enough for you to figure it might be a little important for our Navy to be there for protection.

Wake up people! Stop hating your own country!!!

Chris...OC, Calif.

Amazing how shortsighted some of these comments are. "Stop surrounding Iran..."??!! "...who DIDN'T fire like the Pentagon wished he had. Obviously it wasn't necessary..." ?!

No one could have known that taking out those boats was or was not necessary. Common wisdom suggests that they probably should have been taken out. And YES, kudos for the Navy for not following through on the temptation to take the Iranians out

YEAH! More supp Warfunding!

If they think someone is going to blow up their boat,for the safety of the crew they should blow them up first and everyone should applaud them.American lives are at stake.

This blotter is full of FAR left idiots! If you poeple ever get in charge of our country GOD help us all. Wait, that's right you don't belive in GOD either.....figures.

If you people would be believe in your own country with the same energy as you hate Bush we would all be better off. By the way, are you people getting your politics from Rosie? "Gulf of Tonkin" you are so insane!!!

I think the Navy should sink any Iranian boat who they feel are threatening them. I would rather read about an Iranian boat being sunk rather than any American being killed by these insane people.

I didn't realize that "ABC" now stands for "Awfully Bogus Conspiracy"! 9-11 truthers, take your Ron Paul signs and go home!

The Straits or Hormuz are pretty narrow and a war there or burning or sunken hulks of ships would cause a real problem for navigation of huge oil carrying vessels in or out. Iran is playing with fire but I believe is pretty calculated when it comes to harassing us. Turns out they were cowards this time. No one can predict what they'll do next time.

I GUESS ALL YOU BRILLIANT MINDS OUT THERE WHO SAY " GULF OF TONKIN" OR THE U.S. WANTS WAR,WOULD RATHER THEY KILLED OUR SAILORS FIRST,RIGHT?I KNOW THE WORLD TRADE CENTER WAS A INSIDE JOB TOO.

What many of the respondents don't realize is that in the late 1980s the Iranians did the same thing, but fired missiles at American ships. As a result, we sunk 6 of their corvettes.

What the "Bush-haters" don't seem to realize is the gravity of the event. Do you believe the Iranians are carrying explosives (i.e. behavior of taunting and dropping boxes in the path of the oncoming ships)? Or do you wait until an instance where the do miscalculate our response?

I am sure the "Bush-haters" will say "it's a bumper sticker issue" or something similarly brilliant.

Get over it. It's our ships, our sons and daughters. If you are not interested in protecting our lives vis a vis self defense, please move to France. I am sure they would love to have you.

The Iranians are nuts and it was good to see the Navy not pulling the trigger this time. However, I will say if they come within 1/2 a mile of any US War Ship in the future they should be blown right out of the water. These people need to know we will not accept any more nonsense.

The entrance to the Strait of Homuz is very narrow. Two aircraft carriers andtheir support vessels can barely past each other safely without incidence. This is where Iranian navy think they have a chance of provoking the US into a confrontation. We witness it here now on this story. It happened once before and the Iranian suffered the consequences; but they kept at it knowing the same result will happened. Only this time, if we did fired, they would claimed that only women and children were on board their gunships --for international consumption. Can you imagine the kind of reaction the pro-Iranian and Usama midia here would be. How about that Eric?

Can't believe how some you libs are defending the Iranians on this issue. Go hug a tree...idiots.

Umm, again, chris in OC, the poster's name is written BELOW the post...pay attention...stop crediting me with Rubiconski's post...

Amen Chris, who are these people?

Shepert said, "An explosive vessel within 100 yards would do damage to innocent sailors...To believe that there is no threat in Iran is just ignorant."

Shepert -- For one, the Iranian boats were apparently not loaded with explosives. The mere speculation that an Iranian broadcast MAY have alluded to the words 'blown up' is a byproduct of the fact that ABCNEWS is quoting an ANONYMOUS US MILITARY SOURCE. This is how the propaganda machine starts. The press quotes anonymous sources that float 'facts' out into the public domain that may or may not be true.

Early news stories said the Iranians dropped "white boxes" in front of the US vessels. Now even that 'fact' is changing, and news stories are no longer publishing that 'fact'. Why not?? Were there white boxes dropped, or not? When someone hears that 'white boxes' were dropped, they immediately think 'explosives' because the ANONYMOUS SOURCE throws out that term when they leak to ABCNEWS. So now, we go from 'white boxes' being dropped, to 'Iranian speedboats loaded with explosives', and 'Iranian speedboats 'BEHAVING LIKE' they were loaded with explosives. What the hell is that supposed to mean -- they were 'behaving like' they were loaded with explosives?

This is exactly what happened in the lead up to the Iraq war. First we heard the Iraqi's "definitely" had mobile biological weapons labs. Then we heard Iraq "definitely" had a fleet of UAVs that could drop bombs. Then we heard Iraq was "definitely" going to attack the United States. NONE of that was true! It was all propaganda that was labeled as fact for just long enough to convince the nation to go to war. Discovering these lies 3 years after the fact does us no good. We need to demand that the press independently verify every single 'fact' spewed out by these suspicious anonymous sources before we end up in yet another disaster.

Uhh...false flag terror? WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

The Iranians have been doing this for years. As for the Americans being there, 40% of the world's oil travels through the Straight of Hormuz and if Iran thinks they can cause an incident, the price of oil will shoot up again.

Just dispose of Iran already. What are we waiting on?

Can someone please tell The President that Johnson already used the Lie about the NAVY being attached in Vietman in order for him to use force to attack Vietmam. JESUS - WHEN WILL THE LIES STOP!!!

Why is anyone blaming Bush? Did the ships fire on Iran? No! The US should have blown them out of the water! Proud Army Mom of 2 FOB Warriors, Iraq, 1 Warrior, stateside

Heck, before you know it, we're going to start losing fighters from those aircraft carriers over there .. and it'll be blamed on "mid-air collisions".

For those of you that may think the Bush administration somehow engineered this, I hate to disappoint you but you are wrong. The Iranians routinely pull stunts like this hoping that they will provoke US Navy into firing their weapons. The big difference between this incident an other like it in the past is the number of participants and the fact that they were dropping packages in the water as they were making their run at our ships.

The blame America first gang can't be bothered to know their history, unless it's the perverted version of Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. They're ignorant but they don't know it.

The Iranian boats should have been sunk the minute they came within 500 yards. Have we not learned anything from the USS Cole? The only meetings we should be having should be to discuss why the boats were not sunk. We were just tested and we failed.

look at a map and tell me what we would do with ships from another nation so close

It shouldn't be to difficult for the USN to prove this actually happened, right?!?!?

I mean its not like the American public has ever been lied to about an event that led to a war or anything:)

They are just doing it to cause a panic andc jack the price of oil up past $100 a barrel.

Bush Derrangement Syndrom is running rampart on these pages. Its hard to tell the Americans from the Iranians here.

I see a lot of mindless automatons in these posts, and a lot of great people trying to defend their country. I might suggest that that is a waste of time. These people take marching orders from far left crazy propagandists with no analysis or common sense thought. They could be standing there in the line of fire and would wonder what they had done to deserve it. Poor pathetic, victim-wannabes.

I dare those whiny far-left America-haters to move to the Middle East. Not a nice touristy spot, but move to a regular neighborhood and try and speak your mind. You ladies go out without your coverings. Guys, go down to the pub for a brew with your friends.

Now, to top if all off, refuse to convert. Be the sole American Christian on the block. Tell everyone you are not their enemy.

Last step, see how long your head stays attached, if you made it this far.

We have been extremely reluctant to
allow Iran to goad us into a conflict.
We have exercised this caution til it
is panting-on-the-floor tired.
If Iranian swiftboats get blown out
of the water, rest assured they deserve
it.

I'm sure the U.S. Navy could use the target practice.....

How do we know that Bush didn't set this whole thing up for the world to swallow hook, line and sinker (no pun intended)?
Bush wants us to think he's just some southern hick, but he's a real schemer who is just itchin' to pull the nuclear trigger against Iran.

I think I am the last American standing! All of you crazy self-hating Americans need to move to Iran and see how you like it.

I guess there will be 3 sides to every story. Unless you were there, you will never know for sure - but for now...
Be happy we showed restraint. Be happy you have fuel to heat your house and power your car or whatever. Be happy we don't have our sailors being paraded in front of iranian TV.

Since you can read this, thank a teacher, and being it's in English, thank a Soldier from the United States of America.

vsk