It turns out the Iranians fired missiles at a U.S. drone aircraft over international waters last week, but they were very slow-moving missiles, and did not impact the American consciousness until conveniently after the presidential election:
[Pentagon spokesman] George Little said the incident, which marks the first time the Iranians have fired on a U.S. drone, occurred Nov. 1 at 4:50 a.m. ET. He said the unarmed, unmanned drone was conducting "routine surveillance" over the Persian Gulf when it was "intercepted" by Iran. He said the MQ1 Predator drone, which was not hit, was not in Iranian airspace.
According to Little, two Iranian jets fired twice, missing on both attempts - the drone headed away from the Iranian coast, landing safely soon after at an undisclosed location. The Iranian jets pursued the drone for a short period before giving up.
Little said the U.S. government has protested to the Iranians. Asked about how the U.S. could respond, he said: "We have a wide range of options from diplomatic to military."
He would not say whether there were actually plans for a military response. Asked if this should be considered an act of war, Little said he didn't want to get into "legal characterizations" of the event.
Well, we all know how an Administration's "range of options" improves with post-election flexibility, don't we? Perhaps the "legal characterization" of the event will be "spontaneous video protest."
