[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Pisses me off, but I think we did the right thing. Some say they are getting information from how we responded. No doubt this is true. It probably makes sense to let them see a severe response only when warranted.

[Secret Agent Man]

They are trying to gauge how many boats they are going to need to use to ram and blow holes in our ships in order for some to get through and hit the target. If they do this, there are going to be hundreds of small fast boats laden with explosives running zigzag patterns into the ships.

All my armchair opinion of course.

[onedoug]

They should have been blown out of the water.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Correct. The US Navy can flick them like a buger.

[JasonC]

It was warranted already. The dummies they dropped could just as easily have been real mines. If the men aboard the Cole waited to see if a severe response was "warranted", they'd have been hit and taken out even if they were all at battle stations and saw everything.