A Little Bit of History Repeating?

One has to wonder if the Mullahs in Iran are students of recent History.
From Wikipedia:

"Operation Praying Mantis was the April 18, 1988 action waged by U.S. naval forces in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf and the subsequent damage to an American warship. On April 14, the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B.
Roberts struck a mine while sailing in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will, the 1987-88 convoy missions in which U.S. warships escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers to protect them from Iranian attacks. The explosion put a 25-foot hole in the Roberts' hull and nearly sank it. But the crew saved their ship with no loss of life, and Roberts was towed to Dubai on April 16.After the mining, U.S. Navy divers recovered other mines in the area. When the serial numbers were found to match those of mines seized along with the Iran Ajr the previous September, U.S. military officials planned a retaliatory operation against Iranian targets in the Gulf."

The US sent one Aircraft carrier, 1 Guided missile cruiser, 4 Destroyers and 4 Frigates. Iran brought to the fight 2 frigates, 1 gunboat, and 6 seed boats. The US lost one Marine Corps Cobra to a maintenance failure. The Iranian Navy lost all 6 speed boats, the gun boat, and one of the Frigates. The other Frigate was damaged to the point of being taken out of service for over a year.

Today it has been reported that two US Navy Battle Groups and over one hundred aircraft are conducting operations off of the coast of Iran. The Navy, speaking through Commander Kevin Aandhal stated the maneuvers were not organized in response to the capture of 15 British Sailors and Marines, nor were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic.

Right.

While a show of force is often the way to deter uppity dictators, the situation in Iran is different. The illegal and hostile action of capturing one nations sailors at sea in international waters is an act of war, indeed American and the United Kingdom fought one such war. Iran is seeking out act of provocation, doing what ever ti can to start a war with the West. They have defied the United Nations concerning Nuclear weapons research and development, they are constantly seeking to rile Israel into war by denying the holocaust and in fact stating the the Nation of Israel (read Judaism) must be obliterated off of the face of the planet.

Using the Navy to Show the Flag and demonstrate the might of the US is not going to deter the Mad Mullahs. It will only embolden them. The will not stop, negotiations will not work, they seek conflict in which they hope the whole world will join in conflict.

Using the Navy is a futile gesture. Only complete overwhelming and total force will work, the kind of unmistakable win at all cost campaign that America has not had the stomach to use since the 1940s. Half measurers and Nintendo wars to not solve problems, they only drag them out and erode our capabilities as we saw in Vietnam and as we are seeing in Iraq.

If we decide we are going to fight, we should fight to win.