Americans should welcome the pledge by Iran's navy chief, Wednesday, to send warships to the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Iranian news reports, the vessels will visit ports in the Gulf (presumably Cuba?) before returning to Iranian waters.

Yet while this might seem like a threat to the U.S. and our interests, I see it as an opportunity. Even if Iran reaches the gulf, which is very much questionable, the U.S. will be the one to benefit.

For a start, Iran's navy has little potency as a "blue-water" or oceanic military force. While both the Iranian navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy could pose a challenge to U.S. vessels operating in the tightly packed and shallow waters of the Persian Gulf, Iran cannot bring a warfighting capability to the Atlantic, let alone the Gulf of Mexico. The logistical, mechanical, and supply problems would simply be too great for the Iranians to handle.

Yes, Iran could probably stretch itself to send two or three vessels to the Gulf, but only with the support of an expensive and risky logistics effort. More importantly, once in the Atlantic, the Iranians would come under immediate and sustained monitoring from the U.S. Navy.

This is where the real American benefits to any excursion would come into play.

After all, most of the time Iran's navy is floating around the Persian Gulf harassing various vessels. In turn, it's a rare opportunity for the U.S. Navy to see how Iranian sailors operate far out in the oceans. And just as training makes skill, intelligence gathering feeds better warfighting capabilities.

As it monitors the Iranians, the U.S. Navy will seek to gather intelligence on a wide range of concerns. These might include the Iranian crew routines, how the sailors and their capabilities attempt to monitor the U.S. assets monitoring them, the technical capabilities Iran possess for oceanic combat operations, the reliability of Iranian equipment, the countries and individuals that the Iranian flotilla choose to visit and the communications the flotilla exchanges with headquarters in Iran.

That's just the tip of the iceberg.

All of this represents a near-perfect U.S. naval intelligence opportunity: a hostile force operating in new and unpredictable circumstances that give the U.S. a major advantage.

As I say, you should welcome Iran's effort to visit the Gulf of Mexico.