Starting to look like we almost went to war with Iran because of a monkey. A “Filipino Monkey,” to be exact.

Last week, President Bush, ever eager to drop a bomb on Iran–heck,several bombs–made much of a January 6th incident in the Strait of Hormuz between U.S. warships and some Iranian patrol boats.

A video shot by the U.S. seems to show the Iranian vessels coming real close to the warships and making, according to the U.S.,aggressive maneuvers.

But, the real important part was the alleged audio from the Iranian boats–in particular, a man saying : “I am coming to you. ..You will explode after…minutes.”

Now, those would be fighting words by any measure and Bush sure is looking for a fight with Iran.

Only now, it is starting to look like the audio was a prank-that it didn’t even come from the Irania boats but from someone possibly on the mainland–a radio heckler dubbed “the Filipino Monkey.”

The Navy Times is reporting, according to the Associated Press, that several “veteran sailors” speculate the offending transmissions came from the Filipino Monkey-a name, says the A.P. that is used by mariners for someone making inappropriate radio broadcasts at sea.

A spokesperson for the Fifth Fleet says the Navy is still trying to figure out where the radio transmission originated. But, no matter, it already had made a monkey out of Bush.