U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, R-Ariz., says there isn't much America can do about Iran's decision to take British military personnel into custody this morning.

But he says there is something the British can do.

During an interview with WLS Radio in Chicago Friday, McCain said Britain should threaten "very decisive action" for what he calls a gross violation of international law by the Iranians. And he says the United States can only provide moral support.

If you use the Likudnik ratio of killing to kidnapping it will reach 7,500.

Should they commit such an atrocity will Congress pass some sweeping resolution condoning it?

These people do bad things because we continue to enable the.

The US and the UK on behalf of the Iraqi government and the rules of international warfare are authorized to regulate Iraqi waters. (In fact, the U.S. has been conducting operations in those waters since 1991.)

The frigate's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said he was hoping there had been a "simple mistake" over territorial waters.

"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they [British personnel] were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally, the Iranians may claim they were in Iranian territorial waters.

"We may well find that this is a simple misunderstanding at the tactical level."

Fifteen Royal Marines and sailors taken hostage by Iran

Fifteen British sailors and marines were seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces in the Gulf today.

The men were in two inflatable boats on the Shatt al Arab waterway near Basra when they were surrounded by vessels from the Revolutionary Guard.

Iraq and Iran have disputed ...

...navigation rights on the Shatt al Arab since 1935, when an international commission gave Iraq total control of the Shatt al Arab, leaving Iran with control only of the approaches to Abadan and Khorramshahr, its chief ports, and unable to develop new port facilities in the delta. To preclude Iraqi political pressure and interference with its oil and freight shipments on the Shatt al Arab, Iran built ports on the Persian Gulf to handle foreign trade. Iran and Iraq negotiated territorial agreements over the Shatt al Arab waterway in 1975, but by the end of the decade skirmishes in the area became prevalent. Full-scale war between the two countries broke out in Sept., 1980, leading to eight years of attacks on coastal areas (see Iran-Iraq War). The Shatt al Arab remains a source of conflict, as limited water access and unresolved maritime boundaries in the region persist.

Writing today about the incident with the UK sailors, I noted that in prior discussions here on Iran and Iraq, I'd argued that

[o]ne bit of "proof" that some Iranian forces inside Iraq fired on US soldiers, one Gulf of Tonkin-type "incident" in the Persian Gulf, and bam! there's the authority [for an attack on Iran under the War Powers Resolution].

a climate (featuring a convenient "hardline" enemy) in which any minor incident can be escalated into a casus belli - and in the absence of a real incident, one can easily be provoked or even created.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as "insurgents", the site concluded: "If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences."