With all the campaign hullabaloo this week, you might have missed even more important news about U.S. relations with Iran (unless, of course, you are a regular WORLDWIDE STANDARD reader and caught John Noonan’s and Goldfarb’s posts). On Monday, Reuters reported:
The incident occurred days before President Bush’s trip to the Middle East, which according to Reuters is “partly aimed at countering Iranian influence.” Mike Nizza and Foreign Policy‘s Blake Hounshell had informative news roundups early Monday morning, shortly after the incident, but the news was largely lost amid tears and poll numbers in New Hampshire. But today, more bloggers are taking note, as a video of the incident was relased by the Pentagon yesterday. The AP reported:
Both Power Line and Jawa Report have the video and news links. Scott Johnson at Power Line also posted an informative email from a retired Navy man with more details, and Noah Schatman at Danger Room explains Iran’s naval attack methods. And Jules Crittenden ponders Iran’s motives. Counterterrorism Blog blogger Douglas Farah praises the U.S. Navy’s discipline and explains why this incident should be taken seriously: “It is not possible to know if the speedboats charging the U.S. ships in international waters were acting under orders, going for a little fun, or seriously wishing to provoke an international incident…The risk is simply too high to assume that Islamists acting on behalf of Allah will behave in a way we find rational or non-lethal.”
