That's why we don't want to unleash hell on Iran just yet. At this point, sanctions are the best bet for a couple of reasons.
1. It freezes the assets of the Iranian regime without harming the overwhelmingly moderate population.
2. It shows the Iranian population that the West isn't entirely trigger happy and is capable of showing restraint.
I really don't think that Iran has a bomb yet. If they had one, Ahmadenijad probably would have paraded it out already. He's just that stupid.
The positives are that Iranians are fully aware that they've elected a moron. Recent elections show that. Ahmadenijad's conservative party was crushed in recent elections. Has anyone seen him much during this "hostage crisis?" Nope. There's a reason. The Ayatollah is fully aware of Ahmadenijad's ability to make a bad situation worse. He's effectively been muzzled for the time being. He has become so unpopular that he had to do something to rally support for his regime. Did anyone see the huge protest against Britain the other day? A whopping 700 people marched in Tehran.
The West has to understand that the Iranians play a great game of brinksmanship. One of my best friends in the world married an Iranian man in Tehran. They'll both vouch for that fact. The last thing in the world we want to do right now is to hack off the population of Iran. The median age of Iranians is 26, and they embrace western culture. Our best bet, at this point, is to show restraint to the Iranian people and put unbearable pressure on the regime in power. Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy applies here: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." We need to be diplomatic right now...with the promise that one misstep will lead to iran being turned into a parking lot.
As far as the Good Friday attack speculation...
Obviously, there is more than enough firepower in the region for us to strike at any time; however, I've seen lots of propaganda come from the Jerusalem Post. I'm not quite ready to believe it.
As far as Iran threatening US ships in the region's international waters...
I really can't think of worse move. An unprovoked attack on the US in international waters would probably lead to the invocation of the NATO charter. It would be a horrible thing to do.
Edited to add: I'd like to think that Americans have two options here. We can either understand that this two bit thug in power in Iran probably isn't going to get the best of us, or we can wring our hands over every little bit of propaganda that comes down the pike. I'm only 25, but history tells me that we've weathered worse storms. Anyone remember the period of history known as the Cold War when we faced an enemy that actually had 10,000 nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them and Soviets were going to take over the world? Anyone remember the Cuban Missile Crisis when nukes were parked in our back yard? Most analysts agree that we came within two hours of nuclear war. We've weathered far worse storms than this. We're far more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.
