The US military is calm for now, but Iran may have taken a step too far

Conservative leadership favourite Boris Johnson leaves his office yesterday.

Muffled drums of war can be heard in the Persian Gulf, Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner, Friday:

Acting against the British while the UK and Iranian foreign ministers were seeking compromise over Britain’s seizure of an Iranian tanker, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have further isolated Iran … The Iranians are increasingly outgunned and diplomatically isolated.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus, Sunday:

The first thing to remember is that this specific row between Tehran and London is only one aspect of an already highly volatile situation … The Trump administration’s decision to walk away from the international nuclear deal with Iran and to reapply sanctions is having a hugely damaging impact on the Iranian economy.

David Ignatius, The Washington Post, Saturday:

The latest evidence of the US’s seeming “rope-a-dope” strategy toward a flailing Iran came Friday, when the Iranians seized a British-flagged tanker … The US has not taken any visible retaliatory action, in what seemed a calculated non-response … “We need to be the calm and steady part of the equation,” (US Middle East commander Frank) McKenzie said “Clearly this action is irresponsible. But merely because they’re being irresponsible, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of some form of over-reaction. So our response is going to be very calm.”

Simon Tisdall, Guardian Australia website, Sunday:

John Bolton, White House national security adviser and notorious Iraq-era hawk, is a man on a mission. Given broad latitude over policy by Donald Trump, he is widely held to be driving the US confrontation with Iran. And in his passionate bid to tame Tehran, Bolton cares little who gets hurt … So when Bolton heard British royal marines had seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar … his joy was unconfined. “Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions,” he exulted on Twitter … Britain has been plunged into … an international crisis it is ill-prepared to deal with. The timing could hardly be worse. An untested prime minister, presumably Boris Johnson, will enter Downing Street this week. Britain is on the brink of a disorderly exit from the EU, alienating its closest European partners. And its relationship with Trump’s America is uniquely strained.

Lawrence J. Korb, The National Interest website, Saturday:

After President Donald Trump decided not to bomb Iran in retaliation for shooting down a drone that was very close to Iranian air space, many of his conservative critics accused him of acting more like Barack Obama rather than Ronald Reagan.

Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, Sunday:

The sparring between Washington and Tehran seems on the verge of turning into a real slugfest. It’s true that the tactical sum of events does not necessitate war — the damage to four tankers in the Gulf — the downing of an American drone, the denied downing of an Iranian drone and the seizure of a British tanker are weak pretexts for war.

Fox News host Sean Hannity speaks to Rudy Giuliani, Friday:

I want to say this delicately because I have sources that I know are sources you know well. And I know you have been told what I have been told. We know exactly which nuclear sites are the most dangerous and we know the plans have been long drawn up to take them out. And I have been told and I think you have been told … that it will happen if this continues.