Jack Cafferty: "Let’s hope British Prime Minister Tony Blair doesn’t ask the United States to join a coalition of the willing to invade Iran and get its hostages back. My feeling is President Bush would be on that like a bird on a worm."
The CNN host also saw scary implications in the fact that the U.S. Navy is just off the coast of Iran:
Jack Cafferty: "Meanwhile, and this is scary, the U.S. Navy has begun large scale military exercises in the Persian Gulf today, one of the biggest shows of force since the invasion of Iraq, with some U.S. Navy warships just miles off the coast of Iran. Here’s the question: ‘How should Britain go about trying to win the release of its captured sailors and Marines from Iran?...It’s a little frightening what’s going on over there right now, Wolf."
Perhaps Mr. Cafferty joins Rosie O’Donnell in theorizing that this whole incident is the second coming of the Gulf of Tonkin incident?
A transcript of the segment, which aired at 4:07pm on March 27, follows:
Jack Cafferty: "Let’s hope British Prime Minister Tony Blair doesn’t ask the United States to join a coalition of the willing to invade Iran and get its hostages back. My feeling is President Bush would be on that like a bird on a worm. To borrow a phrase from the British, the seizing of 15 sailors and Marines last week in the Persian Gulf presents a bit of a sticky wicket for the Prime Minister. And today, Mr. Blair warned Iran that negotiations to get the Brits back will, quote, ‘move into a different phase,’ if diplomacy fails. Iran won’t say where its holding the captors, won’t allow British diplomats to see them. Some hardliners in Iran want to charge them with espionage. The dispute all goes back to whether or not these 15 soldiers and Marines were in, or sailors and Marines, were in Iranian territorial waters or Iraqi territorial waters. When it comes to holding hostages, Iran is a country with a PHD. Remember the ‘70s? Iran held Americans hostage for 444 days. Now, the U.N. voted this last weekend to lay some heavy duty sanctions on Iran because it refuses to stop enriching uranium. So, the holding of these British sailors and Marines could represent an international game of tit-for-tat. Meanwhile, and this is scary, the U.S. Navy has begun large scale military exercises in the Persian Gulf today, one of the biggest shows of force since the invasion of Iraq, with some U.S. Navy warships just miles off the coast of Iran. Here’s the question: ‘How should Britain go about trying to win the release of its captured sailors and marines from Iran? E-mail your thoughts to Caffertyfile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/Caffertyfile. It’s a little frightening what’s going on over there right now, Wolf."
