War on Iran may or may not be justified, but not over false pretenses.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claims that Iran attacked that Japanese oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman are reminiscent of Colin Powell holding up a vial of white powder before the U.N. General Assembly and the consequent assault on Iraq over weapons of mass destruction.

All Pompeo showed us was a few seconds of blurry aerial footage of a white motorboat alongside the tanker, with eight or nine guys on deck. The story is that we are looking at a boatload of Iranians retrieving unexploded ordnance from the stricken tanker. Can anybody be that stupid? It just doesn’t ring true.

But a couple more interesting questions need answers. The first: Did the U.S. Navy capture that boat and its crew? And the second is: Why not?

That waterway is bustling with U.S. warships, fighter jets and battle-ready helicopters — all there to deal with this exact sort of situation.

The truth is, this whole story smells really fishy.

Richard Morse

Kilauea, Kauai

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