Picking a fight with Iran

The US-Iranian standoff in the Persian Gulf has once again entered an acute phase. On April 22, US President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian gunboats that follow or harass US ships. In response, Commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Major General Hossein Salami declared on April 23 that Iran will provide a swift, “decisive” and “effective” response to US forces if they threaten Iranian “vessels or warships”.

Even before Trump's vow to "shoot down" Iranian speedboats if they harass American ships in international waters, the Navy was bolstering its ability to call in AC-130 gunships and Apache attack helicopters to defend its presence in the Persian Gulf.

A practice run for the new tactics on April 15 drew 11 gunboats from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that crossed the bows and sterns of American vessels at close range. And that prompted Trump's tweet on April 22 saying he'd "instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea."

Take a close look at the map of the Persian Gulf region.  These Iranian speedboats are only operating in the gulf near their own borders.  It is the US warships that are 7,000 miles from home - bumping up along Iran's coast.

Could it be that the US is attempting to provoke a response from Iran that would then 'justify' further military escalations by the Pentagon?

The big question, if the US were to launch attacks on Iran, just how would Russia and China respond?