When the British hostages are recovered from Iran, Britain should immediately launch an attack against Iran. They should punish them severely from the air and sea and then quietly withdraw. Iran should not be allowed to take such a hostile action without consequences. Britain should not accept the humiliation that the USA accepted (that is, Jimmy Carter accepted) during the embassy hostage situation in 1980. If we had retaliated appropriately then (yes, Ronald Reagan could have done that after he took office in 1981), Iran might not be the troublemaker that it is today.

Whether or not the Brits wandered into Iranian territory is irrelevant. Rational nations don’t initiate international incidents over miscalibration of GPS devices. If the Iranians sincerely believed that their GPS coordinates were correct and the Brit’s were wrong, then a simple warning to the Brits on-scene should have been sufficient to deal with the breach. It is clear that the Iranians wanted to provoke an incident.

Since this is a maritime incident, Iranian ports would be appropriate targets for the attack. But no, they can’t do that because it might disrupt the flow of oil from Iran. In fact, attacking any target in Iran might provoke them to shut off the flow of oil to Western Nations. Maybe the Brits aren’t willing to be held hostage to their thirst for oil. But many in the USA would rather have pretty beaches than energy independence. Maybe the Brits will have the courage to weather some short-term consequences of an attack to gain the longer-term benefits. After all, Iran is as dependent on selling its oil as the West is on buying it.