So, what would happen if the USN did open fire on 5 Iranian patrol boats even though they approached with threatening action?
The Iranians would deny any provocation, claim American aggression and use it as an excuse to escalate, possibly including more overt cross border meddling in Iraq and The Stan. Despite his 'eccentricities' I would have thought ImMadAsADinnerJacket would hold back from trying to kick off anything too serious until he had a funtioning nuclear weapon. Therefore I wonder if this was the result of a local commander getting over excited without top level authorisation.