An attack of this sort is not accidental, and it also does not appear to make much sense.

Which is why this regime, as unpredictable as it is fanatical, requires a united response from the civilized world. ~Hugh Hewitt

Yes, never again will the civilised world stand idly by and allow Iran to seize a Romanian oil rig in the Gulf!  You tell ’em, Hugh.  Now, does it really make the Iranians unpredictable if they fail to carry out the super-crazy nuclear apocalypse that some people wrongly predicted for today?  Or does it make the anti-Iranian hawks seem rather like bellicose buffoons?  I suspect that if the Iranian government issued a statement about unemployment, Hugh Hewitt would declare it to be further proof of Tehran’s madness and perfidy.

As it happens, the seizure of the rig was the result of a commercial dispute.  It seems that the Iranians have reacted in an oddly heavy-handed fashion to make their point–whatever that point might be (the Post story was remarkably unhelpful in explaining what the nature of the dispute was)–and that is all it is.  Harming good relations with relatively neutral foreign countries, oil men and investors doesn’t seem to make any sense given Iran’s interests in maintaining good relations for its oil and gas trade, so it is difficult to say what prompted this show of force.