And picking a British crew to kidnap is also not a good move. Maybe they counted on restrictive rules of engagement from the Brits, but not the Americans?

However they chose, it was a mistake. If they had kidnapped a number of Americans, they could have sold the resulting incident to Europeans and "moderate" Arabs as just more of Cowboy Bush's overreacting. Instead, they have played right into the neo-cons hands in allowing this to be portrayed as a "terrorist states versus the civilized west" incident. Which, in reality, is what it is.

Video of that British sailorette being forced to apologize is going to shut up every member of Pelosi's shrill coalition when the war drums start to crescendo.