The Gulf of Tonkin Straights of Hormuz

Juan Cole isn't buying the government assessment of the encounter in the Straights of Hormuz:

The Bush administration's assertion that 5 small Iranian boats confronted big, well-armed US ships in the Straits of Hormuz and threatened to blow up the American vessels is looking more and more like a serious error if not a Republican Party fabrication.

Read the whole thing.

I'm not buying it either, but the press certainly ate it up. Even the NY Times can't bring itself to say that the Navy finally admitted that they don't know where the supposed radioed threats came from until near the end of a long article on why the US and Iranian accounts may not be inconsistent.