Stolen In Its Entireity

From here! (Dead Link Dammit)

The game’s afoot in the Arabian Gulf:

The US Navy today began its largest demonstration of force in the Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying two aircraft carriers and conducting simulated aerial attacks.
Manoeuvres involving 15 US warships and more than a hundred planes were certain to increase tension with Iran, which has frequently condemned the US military presence off its coastline.
The exercises began only four days after Iran captured 15 British sailors and marines whom it accused of straying into Iranian waters near the Gulf. Britain and the US Navy have insisted the British sailors were operating in Iraqi waters.
Aboard the carrier USS John C. Stennis, F/A-18 fighter jets rocketed off the deck in one of a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against enemy shipping and aircraft.

I suppose I should probably stay on message and join the 5th Fleet Public Affairs Officer in saying that these maneuvers have nothing to do with the 15 British sailors and marines shanghai’d by the IRGCN four days ago. Which in turn probably has nothing at all to to do with the 300 Iranian agents captured mucking around inside Iraq - and about whom, in response to the State Department’s plea to let some of them go, General Petraeus instead vowed (God bless his little camouflaged heart) to keep imprisoned until they ran out of information or he ran out of food.
But I guess I could point out that, in the highly theoretical case that a decision to stage a show of force demonstration had indeed been made by national command authority in response to the British Insult, it would probably have taken about this long to plan and execute.
Me? I might have gone about it in a different way, I think (and here’s a quick precis on why I’ll never be either a flag officer or a president): Pick an Iranian naval asset - one of those Kilo submarines, just for example - and politely ask the mullahs to de-man it because we’ll coming over in a little while to sink it at the pier. We cannot be deterred and we will not be dissuaded and there’s not a thing you can do to stop us, so how about getting the crew ashore and saving some lives? And by the way until we get 15 Tars and Jollies back, healthy and whole, we’ll be providing a fresh hull number tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, so do try to stay awake.
Any of your warships not currently at sea and seen making preparations to get underway? Assumed hostile and subject to defensive measures. 
And if they part one hair on a British mariner’s head? We sink every vessel in the Iranian fleet, at sea or in port, manned or otherwise. We’re tired of this.
Welcome to Leviathan.