I commented earlier that I thought the current president of Iran was involved in the 1979 hostage crisis. Here is the support, from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad
(I'm pasting in an exerpt from his bio at that website):
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Ahmadinejad was politically active as a student during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, and represented the University of Science and Technology in the Students Movement at the Central Committee for the “Office of Growth of Unity of the Students” where the plan for the embassy takeover was presented. [16] Reportedly, he first opposed the take-over .[17] [18] or supported a larger plan that included the simultaneous take-over of the Soviet Union embassy [19] until the Ayatollah Khomeni gave his approval of the US embassy take-over.[20] Several former hostages and the former President of Iran have identified Ahmadinejad as one of the key individuals holding Americans inside the embassy. [21] In a secret report specifically investigating this issue, the CIA declared this identification "Not proven". [22] [23]---------------------------------------------------------

If you compare the 1979 hostage crisis with the current situation with the British hostages, and consider that President Ahmadinejad was one of the students involved in that earlier event, it becomes clear, at least to me, what his intentions are. I think he is planning a repeat of 1979. Those hostages were held 444 days, humiliated, and forced to make statements against the United States. You see the exact same scenario unfolding today. Even as I write this, the Iranian students are holding demonstrations outside the British embassy in Tehran. The only question is whether we and the Brits will grovel like we did in 1979.

Hack, I couldn't agree more. If we hadn't squandered our military in the foolish adventure in Iraq, we could be girding our loins for the real enemy--Iran. They are trying to do the same thing with the Brit sailors that they did with the American embassy personnel at the end of the Carter presidency. It worked so well for them back then, and if I remember correctly, their current president was one of the students involved with holding Americans hostage back then. So he thinks he can make the Brits squirm just like we did in 1979.

What we should have done back then is give 2-3 weeks for diplomacy to have a chance to succeed, then when it became obvious that the Iranians were not responding to diplomacy, we should have commenced bombing them. That probably would have meant the death of the hostages, but that would have been better than the national humiliation that we actually endured.

I'm puzzled by Dollar's assertion that we are somehow the bullies in this affair. Good description of how a bully acts, but then Dollar asserts "This is NOT what Iran is doing!" Well I beg to differ. This is exactly what Iran is doing. What alternate universe are you in to assert that the Brits have been taunting the mullahs in the boats for sometime. There is no factual basis for that assertion.

My last military deployment was to the war in Afghanistan. Actually, I pulled strings to get on one of the first groups that went. My daughter was in DC on 9/11. She wasn't harmed in the attack, but I felt that I had some personal payback to do. I'm proud to say that I (we) succeeded in that regard. On the other hand, I was against the war in Iraq, so I retired rather than serve in that war. Now, our military might is weakened to the point of exhaustion, and the real enemy is seeking to capitalize on that weakness.

The lesson to be learned here is that war should always be the last option, and only in defense of our nation. Saddam was a mass murderer and a ruthless dictator, but he posed no serious threat to the United States. We should have left well enough alone. Now, we are facing a serious threat, but we don't have the resources to easily defeat Iran. I hope we learn from this lesson, but history seems to say we won't.

Dollar, it was fanatics who flew those airliners on 9/11. The same sort of Islamic fanatics that now run Iran. They are a real threat to us, unlike the BS that Bush pumped about WMDs. The only language that they understand is the aluminum overcast we can create for them. We should now start getting ready to do that. It's only a matter of time before it becomes necessary.

When I was a kid I recall a few bullies who would do various things to get a fight with a kid they thought they could whip if he wouldn't cooperate.
A chip on the shoulder comes to mind--daring the kid to knock it off. A line drawn on the ground and dared not to cross it. Verbal taunts of cowardness might also work.
This is NOT what Iran is doing!
It is the Gulf of Tonkin affair again. The Brits have been taunting the mullahs army in the boats for sometime.
These characters are not part of the regular Iranian army, the are conscripts of the mullahs who do things the regular army isn't allowed to do. Something like our CIA. Or our Halliburton friends.
Remember, the President of Iran must get permission of the top Grand Mullah for doing anything nearly.
It might be wise to get the British captives back before we bomb.