The Drumbeat for War Hits a Snare

Pardon the pun.

Remember last year when the Bush Administration, in conjunction with the British Government, were up in arms over the capture of fifteen British sailors in International Waters? The sailors were held for about two weeks amidst non-stop television coverage and, of course, requisite saber-rattling by the Americans and British.

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the UK Times Online has uncovered the lies that were used to stoke the flames for war. Although the Iran/Iraq boundaries were re-drawn by the coalition to cover where the incident took place, they made one crucial error: they forgot to tell the Iranians.

Additionally, according to the report, it was the British who first raised their weapons when sighting the Iranian gunboats. Iran has always maintained that they detained the British sailors because they believed the sailors were violating sovereign territory.

One has to wonder how much junk we are being fed in preparation for war with Iran. From manufactured incidents such as Iranian speedboats "harassing" American warships (1,2) to altogether phony incidents like the above, how can any spokesperson, official, or administrator have any credibility left?