On FOX News today, host Jon Scott followed up on a report that Secretary Gates is sending another carrier to the Gulf to serve as a "reminder" -- not an "escalation" -- to the Iranians by bringing in retired Special Forces Commander Tim Haake to comment. After Scott asks "why don't we just blow those little speed boats out of the water," Haake appears to conflate the Iranian boats with the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which was also committed by small watercraft, but had nothing to do whatsoever with the Iranians.

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Whether or not you believe the conflation was intentional and explicit, I think the clip speaks to a larger point. It's amazing that the FOX host can ask so flippantly "why don't we just blow those little speed boats out of the water"?

It's like saying "why don't we commit an act of war against Iran"?

It really goes to the heart of why our foreign policy is so screwed up. We station warships and hundreds of thousands of troops in other people's backyards and then threaten to attack them if they dare get close. Contrary to what many believe, we don't own the world. And idiots like this FOX host seem to think that there's no big deal with policing the world, "blowing out of the water" those pesky Iranians if they dare patrol their own neighborhood. Imagine if an Iranian news show was talking so openly about blowing up American ships. It would be treated as a full blown declaration of war.

And I'm sure that second carrier Secretary Gates sent to the Gulf as a "reminder" doesn't rattle the Iranians and increase tensions at all.