Quote:Those boats should never have been given up, and the assets in the area should have taken care of them.  Instead we make Iran look like they are relevant on the world stage and our president talks about "what he's accomplished" and what he wants to do before leaving office.

The difference is that soldiers captured during Vietnam were captured during a war. They had no reason to apologize for screwing up their navigation. Had Iran stopped and detained these boats while they were in international waters, then it would be a different story, but that's not what happened. Every single story I've read has the US government and the sailors acknowledging that they screwed up.

 

They sailed into Iranian territorial waters near a military installation. Iran reacted as any mature nation would: they detained the boats and sailors and immediately contacted the United States to sort it out. The US claimed that mechanical problems were to blame, and less than a day later, Iran released all ten sailors and the boats, which mysteriously cruised back out into the open ocean without any signs of mechanical trouble. Was this the US testing Iran's response to an incursion into their territorial waters, maybe? Or was it just Ahmed's Boat Repair doing a miraculous job of fixing the problem out of the goodness of Ahmed's heart?

 

If Iran had sailed two small boats up near Mayport, you'd be calling for seizure of the boats and indefinite detention of the Iranian sailors as spies. Face it: Iran handled this situation like a grown-up. I know that doesn't fit in with the extremist agenda, and it's probably a blow to the idea that the Ayatollah whiteboards plans to take over the world while he eats his cereal in the morning, but that's how it went down.

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