Iran A False Crisis

The media is all a flutter about the fifteen British sailors taken hostage by the Iranian military while conducting useless naval operations in the Persian Gulf. They've declared this a major crisis and a potential war.
Fortuately this is neither a major crisis or a potential war simply a minor incident turned into a crisis by our so called leaders egostical posturing and posing. There is a cheap and simple way to end this crisis but our leaders won't take it.
The cheap and simple way to put an end to this crisis is do what Queen Victoria's navy would have done if some petty warlord grabbed a few of Her Majesty's sailors practice gunboat diplomacy. The way to deal with Iran is this simply inform Iran's real leaders the Ayatollahs that unless the British sailors are released immediately the US and British military will start destroying Iran's oil refineries. In words threaten the one thing they really care about namely oil and the money it brings in.
Since Iran is a third rate power whose military prowess on par with Saddam's it would pose little threat to British and American forces. Once Iran's air force was shot down all we'd have to do is bomb one or two refineries and the Ahatollayahs would give in and release the British hostages. They might shut down the nuclear program and fire the loudmouthed antisemtic kook of a President to boot.
Since all it would take to shut down the Ahatollayahs would be a few bombs or cruise missiles fired at their oil refineries. We have to ask why don't our leaders do it?
The answer is simple and disturbing the politicians in Washington, the brass and the Pentagon, the hysterical media and the military industrial complex needs enemies to fight. They need an Iranian menace for our bloated and largely obselescant military to defend us from.
If the Iranian menace is shown up to be a third rate power that can barely defend itself there is less need for the massive military and the spending it generates. Nor is there an sort of a crisis or castrophe for our politicians to deal with and feel heroic.
So once again a group of petty tyrants are allowed to bully great powers and create a crisis that will cause the deaths of real people so our politicians and soldiers can look great and justify their military spending. And a group of decent men who tried to do their duty end up as pawns in a sick game for lack of real leadership in London and Washington.