I wonder what Bolton expected the UK to do. Invade? Lob some Tomahawks in? Nuke them back to the stone age? Like the US would have let them do that even if they were were physically capable of doing so. The Brits can be justly blamed for putting their people in harm's way without having any plan in place to back them up, but they handled the subsequent negotiations very successfully and by giving up very little in return for what they got.

What happened over there is pretty clear, Iran took the sailors because they sincerely thought (probably mistakenly) they were invading their territory. It was almost certainly an on-the-spot decision by a local commander and Amawhatchmacallit didn't even know what was going down until it was all over. The very fact the Iranians didn't fully exploit this situation like they did the embassy hostages indicates they were probably just as glad to see it over with as the Brits were. They got what they wanted out of it, some bragging rights and the opportunity to look magnanimous. UK got what it wanted out of it, their people back safely and no major concessions or grovelling. Nobody got hurt and nobody got tortured, except for isolation and psychological pressure the USA freely admits to using, too. The Iranians certainly would have handled this differently if they really wanted to exploit this to the fullest, as it is, they've tipped their hands and can't do it again because the Americans and Brits (who are on their way out ANYWAY, Mr Bolton) are hip to the plan now. At least, I hope they are.

Bolton's an ass, not because he counsels a vigorous response to an adversary's outrages, that is to be commended, but because he is congenitally incapable of seeing anything but outrages and of responding in any other way. He's the man they send when they want to make clear we have no intention of talking anyway.