In fairness to Hegseths slight oversight, he was rather busy beating his puffed out chest, and I believe simply didn’t read, or accidentally omitted a clarifying word, that would have made his assertion of “first time since ww2 a war canoe has become a dive attraction courtesy of a torpedo” correct.
Clearly the more measured and articulate General Caine, chose to reiterate more accurately the clarifiers of the sinking, while delicately correcting Hegseth’s verbal gaff.
As for previous comments as to whether the Iranians on that war canoe should have been given the opportunity to surrender, absolutely and 100% not. One only has to look at that vessels weapons capability, and its proximity to FJDG, to realise they were a clear and present danger.
Even a Pawn in a chess game can cause untold grief.
In my personal view, it was a good decision, despite the sad deaths of the sailors.
On a separate note, it seems the recently dead Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, according to Fars News Agency. As there may be a very enticing guest list attending the event, I wonder what kind of bad feeling it would incur from the other Muslim states, were such a target rich environment to appear in the crosshairs of a B2.
Somewhat of a quandary for those who make such decisions.