More Accidental War

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Mon., Jan 14, 2008
Filed under: War Making and Oversight

Several weeks ago, The Media Consortium brought you a story about the risk of an accidental war with Iran, and last week, in the Strait of Hormuz, there was nearly just such a catastrophe. From the look of things, the actual threat level was fairly low, but the Navy says they were moments away from firing. But though the real-time exchange did not result in any violence, the White House nonetheless pounced on the opportunity to escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran.

I’ve spoken to staff members of both the House and Senate Armed Services committees–two of the committees with jurisdiction over the issue–and both are following the incident extremely closely. The Senate committee will receive a staff briefing about the melee later this week while its members do what they do–in their districts and elsewhere–during recess. No official word on whether any of this will lead to hearings. But these are the first steps.