Persuasion works; but works especially well if you are persuading with a loaded gun. That was one of the lesson that Al Capone taught. The present generation of politicians seem to have imbibed that lesson rather well. First the US moved its 5th fleet to the Persian Gulf, and now Iran says its has perfected a 2000 pound smart bomb. Both the countries say they remain committed to solving their problems through diplomacy. Naturally, one wonders. This incident of course has to be seen in perspective.
The story so far is as follows: (abridged for easy digestion). Iran, a signatory of NPT, is developing a nuclear program which it says is only for peaceful generation of electricity. US, and its ally in the gulf region, Israel, feel that this is only a subterfuge for a nuclear weapons program. At the very least Iran is seeking to have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons, even if it does not actually develops them. So that in the event of a war it can quickly scale up its activity to build a nuclear weapon. With about 200 Israeli nuclear bombs sitting in its immediate neighborhood, it cannot be faulted on its strategy. America too realizes that what Iran is actually seeking is nuclear weapons capability, not actual nuclear weapons and is determined that it should not have that capability.
It has tried its utmost to browbeat Iran into curtailing off its nuclear program. It has also used its heft in the International forums to subdue Iran diplomatically. But the Iranians have proved more than a match for them in this arena. Not only have they avoided severe forms of sanctions, they have managed to get the world opinion firmly in behind them.
Seeing that its diplomatic efforts are not going anywhere, with the Iranians getting closer to a full nuclear cycle everyday, the US has resorted to gunboat diplomacy. It has sent several of its warships to the Persian gulf to build up pressure. It has also sold 5000 bunker buster to Israel and 30 F-15 aircrafts. The idea is, even if the US does not attacks, Israel would do the needful. Of course with the help of American F-15s and bunker busters. 
Israel has been responding by purchasing more military hardware from the Russians and demonstrating it prowess in the sea. Earlier they had tested a precision guided, radar evading anti ship missile. Now they say they have perfected a ’smart bomb’ named appropriately enough Qased. Quased means messenger in Persian, so the idea is that the use of any of these ’smart bombs’ would make sure that the US got the message.
Photos from here
