Yesterday, Iran briefly detained 10 Navy sailors after their small boats experienced mechanical problems and inadvertently drifted into Iranian waters. Almost immediately, Iran promised to release the soldiers and did so early this morning.

But last night, while the process was being worked out and the sailors were still being held by Iran, Rep. Louie Gohmert appeared on Dana Loesch’s television and delivered a predictably Gohmertian response to the situation by declaring that the United States should put our armed forces on high alert and inform Iran that we will begin destroying its naval fleet if the sailors are not immediately released.

“When our Navy ships have problems, we don’t call Iran,” Gohmert blustered, “we call the rest of the Navy, we can call the Air Force, the Army, the Marines, the Coast Guard. We don’t call Iran!”

“For the Iranians to even issue a statement at all saying, ‘We are going to release them soon,’ tells you that they control whether or not they can leave,” he continued. “That situation should not be allowed to happen … We should demand that Iran let these people go, our Navy men or women, whatever they are, let them go or we’re going to start taking your ships out one at a time.”