their behavior has been strange because they're still in the jcpoa, i understand that, and they're trying to work out a special funding deal and trading deal with the iranians that avoids using the american dollar. whether that's going to work or not remains to be seen. the japanese were clearly up-staged. i think they're very much in support of us and i believe they will continue to support trump's policy of coersive diplomacy. we have to you lay out what we think is going to happen here. paul: what is going to happen here? what do you think? where does this go if iran decides to escalate? >> well, first of all, i think what we need to do is begin to escort the ships. we did that in 1987 and '88 and it was done successfully. we have to be prepared for the iranians to take some action. when the iranians attack one of the re-flagged u.s. ships, a