Well, the alternative is you continue the current attack, in which case we will, obviously, respond. Going back the line of history further and further to who started what first will not gain you any points in the long run. We are in the situation we are in and no amount of wishful thinking that we’d have done something differently in the past will not change it. Either you want a peaceful way out from here and now, or you don’t.
Cute.
But it really works better when the admiral does it.