The priority is the safe return of the sailors. Air strikes would not achieve that, it might condemn them. The government knows that. I don't know why people think it has any merit as a strategy, or why so many people on DU seem certain that we'll go to war over this. We can't. As well as the 15 captive sailors in Iran itself, there are thousands of our soldiers "captive" in Iraq and Afghistan, within easy reach of reprisals by the Iranians. Aggression would be lunacy.