Publius, do you honestly believe that your single source has every document related to the USS Liberty or just those declassified in support of the official cover story? Here are some sources that bring to light other aspects of the story that are inconvenient to the "whoops, our bad" official story. USS Liberty Memorial Background from War Crimes Report, with footnotes Photos taken aboard USS Liberty DURING THE ATTACK, showing that the attacking Israelis were more than close enough to the ship to identify it. War Crimes Committed Against U.S. Military Personnel, June 8, 1967, with witness statements The official Naval Board of Inquiry transcript relating to the investigation was denounced as a fraud by the JAG officer who was responsible for certifying its authenticity. The fact that Israeli Reconnaissance aircraft made over 8 passes over the USS Liberty and even circled the ship before returning to Israel and using Jane's Fighting Ships to confirm that the ship was American proves that Israel knew what they were doing. The fact that the first attack waves of Israeli warplanes targeted the bridge and communications equipment shows that they wanted to cut off the ship from the outside world. It was only the cobbling together of different equipment that the crew was able to send a distress call at all. Also, considering that the attacking warplanes and torpedo boats machine gunned three lifeboats put over the side and anyone who ventured topside shows that survivors were not wanted. The U.S. government has only released and declassified documents that fit into the official version of events. To date, the USS Liberty is the only US naval ship to have been attacked without a thorough investigation, the recall of US warplanes from the USS America and USS Saratoga from assisting a US naval ship under attack is without precedent in American history, the surviving crew members are still under orders not to discuss publicly what they experienced during the attack. So, no, Publius, I respectfully disagree that this was some simple mistake. No Israeli was ever brought up on charges for their role in the attack and the United States government has yet to fully declassify all documents relating to the attack. If there was nothing to hide, then there would be no problem coming clean. DO YOU HAVE THE WRITE STUFF?

Iran will kick our backsides in a conventional war and they do have major leverage with their control over the Straits of Hormuz. With U.S. troop commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are no ground troops left for any meaningful invasion of that country either. Given the size of Iran, the only realistic shot the U.S. has at maintaining air supremacy over Iran safely is the use of tactical nukes at key locations, which Bush has refused to take off the table. Given the fact that there is absolutely no credible evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons or that she poses a threat to anyone, any military action against Iran is a criminal act of war. Even when Israel is demanding that the U.S. enforce a military blockade of Iran, blockading ports is still an act of war. I've been through the Straits of Hormuz and we at heightened alert just because the navigable waterway is less then the Straits' 12 mile width. Since the Iranians have upgraded from their Chinese-made Silkworm anti-ship missiles, their missile batteries can sink even our largest aircraft carriers. Considering a Nimitz-class carrier carriers over 5000 missiles and crew, it is exactly that kind of false flag sinking that can cause an national outrage that drags us into war. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and other high-ranking military members flew to Tel Aviv to speak with their Israeli counterparts. What they talked about was the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty 41 years ago and how the Israelis better not conduct another false flag operation against the US Navy to get us to attack Iran. (For those who never heard about it, the USS Liberty was a US naval vessel that was in international waters off the coast of Egypt during the Arab-Israeli Six Day War. Assigned to electronic surveillance, the ship came under attack by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats, who attacked the ship for over two hours, although the ship was clearly a US warship flying the American flag. Although the Israelis claimed "mistaken identity", common sense, survivor testimony, and the fact that LBJ ordered the aircraft carrier, USS America, to not launch aircraft to protect the American warship, lead one to see this as something more than a simple mistake. 34 sailors lost their lives that day. The false flag operation was supposed to sink the ship and kill the entire crew and blame it on the Egyptians to draw the US military into the fight on Israel's side. On the part of killing the whole crew, survivors abandoning ship were strafed in the water by Israeli warplanes.) Israel is desperate to have us attack Iran and will stop at nothing to get us to do so, even attacking us directly and shifting the blame on Iran. Google: USS Liberty 1967, King David Hotel July 1946, bombing of the U.S. consulate in Alexandria, and Israeli involvement in US bombing of Libya in 1986 for other Israeli attacks and false flags on her "allies" to get them to do her bidding. DO YOU HAVE THE WRITE STUFF?