"Hi! I'm Greg. Come Sail Me To Miami!"

Here, aircraft carriers USS Nimitz, Bonhomme Richard, and John C. Stennis steam up the Gulf of Oman on their way through the Straits of Hormuz in a "show of force" intended to intimidate Iran, hang around until they start a war by accident, or get the orders to fly bomb-laden planes off their decks and keep it going like a conveyor belt. Each carrier is part of a strike (CSG) or battle (CBG) group. There are differences between a CSG and a CBG, but each consists of upwards of twenty ships with upwards of twenty thousand sailors and marines, along with at least one nuclear attack submarine per group. The USS Eisenhower appears to have been rotated off station, or at least that it's not in the glamour shot above is some small comfort.

How would we Americans feel if, say, China sailed sixty warships between Cuba and Miami and sent them on into the Gulf of Mexico towards Houston? With loudspeakers playing broken records which say, "All options are on the table! All options are on the table! All options are on the table!" Apart from cursing them as despicable morons, I would guess we'd be feeling a little bit...murderous. Like our national sovereignty was being violated. Like Iran's has been repeatedly for the last century by Western powers. A little word of advice to the next Caretaker of Democracy: Stop.

If I had to take a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which, most thankfully I don't because I'm shirking other writing tasks even as I write this post, first, there would have to be a lot of money involved. Next, I would title it: "Iran's Message to America: So Bomb Us Already, You Sick Twisted Bastards."

(For any youngsters here, the post's title refers to famous TV commercials of the late 1960s, in which a short-skirted stewardess would look at the camera and say, "Hi! I'm Marcia. Come fly me to Miami.")