Imagine 10 Iranian soldiers aboard Iranian military vessels had turned up off the coast of the United States.
It's safe to assume that, whatever course of action was selected by US officials in response to the incursion, it would not have involved briefly detaining the visitors and then sending them on their merry way without a disproportionate amount of bellicose rhetoric and conspiracy theories launched by the sectors of US and international society that specialise in such things.
In recent years, Iran has hardly needed to raise a finger to get neoconservative and other panties in a bunch. Back in 2011, for example, a congressional subcommittee heard testimony regarding the alleged threat to US homeland security posed by Iranian actions in Latin America.
Among these actions was a reported request from the Iranian embassy in Bolivia for more than two dozen spaces at the international school in La Paz for the offspring of diplomatic personnel. Frightening stuff.
La Paz, mind you, is no fewer than 6,225 kilometres from Washington, DC - in other words, a much longer distance than that between the Iranian homeland and the US military boats that appeared last week in Iranian territorial waters.
And while Iran releasedthe 10 detained US soldiers in expedited fashion, various Western politicians and media couldn’t help but exploit the opportunity to cast the Islamic Republic as the aggressor in this case, as well. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.