The double bind that Britain is being offered: the British should admit that they had violated Iranian space and their sailors will be released. You can have peace but only on condition of violating your perception of reality. The upshot of that is though that you have now acceded to the mullahs as they who specify what is real. This is a painful spot for cultural relativists who here go from respect for others to collapse of their own ego/autonomy. The solution in the West so far has been to bend our perceptions without acknowledging that we have done so except perhaps in displacement. Muslims appear as earnest students and then fly planes into buildings killing 3000 and our chant becomes, 'Bush lied; people died.'

Our goal should not be to find peace, it should be to weaken the Iranian regime.

Direct military action will result in a war, leading to an occupation that will follow the course of Iraq. Direct military action would, therefore, be a bad idea.

So, we kidnap a lot of their intelligence agents, then threaten to publicize this kidnapping, which will show the world how weak they are. Offer to make an exchange, but humilitate them by making no concessions. Make some openly friendly gestures to the Russians, make the Iranians feel vulnerable. This isn't rocket science, it's just more Middle Eastern mob wars.

Of course, since the British are dealing with this problem, I'd guess that their response will be a mixture of groveling appeasement and ineffective violent action. Hope I'm wrong.

Direct military action will result in a war,

But the Iranians are already involved in the war supporting Iraqis, both Shia and Sunni,in their sectarian strife with arms and manpower, besides helping blow up Americans with Hezbollah R&Ded IEDs.

But the Iranians are already involved in the war supporting Iraqis, both Shia and Sunni,in their sectarian strife with arms and manpower, besides helping blow up Americans with Hezbollah R&Ded IEDs.

The Syrians and other players in the Middle East are doing the same thing, and our Saudi allies are supplying Iraq with suicide bombers. A standard military action, or 'regime change' in Iran will not solve those problems, it will exacerbate them. And it will leave us with another occupation/insurgent mess to deal with.

We should stop fighting our enemies like redcoats, and we should start fighting their asymetric war asymetrically. Weaken them to the point of powerlessness.