it s a choke point, and as american officials have been warning privately and publicly, a serious flash point. what about if they decide to block us off at the straits of hormuz. we have made it clear that the united states will not tolerate the blocking of the straits of hormuz. we will respond to that. the question tonight is, what will iran do next? what happens then? what s being done right now to head it off. barbara starr is here, and on the phone, curt lithal, former commander of the u.s.s. cole. what do you believe to be the intent of the iranians. were they trying to bait the u.s. military, provoke an altercation? maybe just a little bit of both, anderson. the thinking is that the iranians were not looking for a shooting match. they were going to break off, but they were going to cause a little heart-stopping action before they did that. one of the things here is look, the iranians gained intelligence by getting so close to u.s. navy ships. they were able to