Picture shows GPS location of the incident, as seen from a Royal Navy helicopter over the merchant vessel [Picture: MOD]
Posted on 03/28/2007 5:27:49 AM PDT by DeerfieldObserver
IT'S been a tough month for the British Navy. On March 7, it learned that Tony Blair's Labor government was going ahead with drastic cuts in its budget and number of ships. By this time next year, the once-vaunted Royal Navy will be about the size of the Belgian Navy, while its officers face a five-year moratorium on all promotions. If that wasn't demoralizing enough, last Friday the Iranian Navy seized a patrol boat containing 15 British sailors and Marines, claiming they'd crossed into Iranian waters. They're now hostages and may well go on trial as spies.
The latest report is that the Britons were ready to fight off their abductors. Certainly their escorting ship, HMS Cornwall, could have blown the Iranian naval vessel out of the water. However, at the last minute the British Ministry of Defense ordered the Cornwall not to fire, and her captain and crew were forced to watch their shipmates led away into captivity.
There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can't even protect its own sailors.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Today, British politicians seem determined to make the same mistake. They exude the spirit not of Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher but of diplomat and Labor Party stalwart Harold Nicolson, who used to sigh to friends in the dark days after France's surrender in 1940: "All we can do is lie on our backs with our paws in the air and hope that no one will stamp on our tummies."
The capture of 15 British sailors should serve as a warning. Nations cannot "opt out" of their responsibilities in the War on Terror when they feel it, like players in a pickup basketball game or cricket match.
Enemies like the mullahs and their terrorist allies recognize no time outs, no neutral ground. They see only strength and weakness, those nations they can manipulate and those they have to fear. Today they clearly feel they can pull the British lion's tail with impunity.
If the hostages are finally released unharmed, it will have a lot more to do with the presence of two American carrier groups off the Iranian coast than anything Blair is doing - and the British will have learned that what they really lost when they gave up their fleet and abandoned the fight in Iraq is their own self-respect.
Picture shows GPS location of the incident, as seen from a Royal Navy helicopter over the merchant vessel [Picture: MOD]
The Left will continue to rail for the 'turning-tide'. . .the one we must sink or swim against; as we negotiate these waters.
Interesting, educational article. Thanks for posting.
And just like the US under Carter during the hostage crisis, the UK is going to let Iran wipe their butt with them. When is someone going to finally punk slap these carpet kissing scumbags back to the Mesozoic era?
What would Hillary do?
What would Rudy do?
Hold on, now. This is approaching endgame. The British have built a case, the Iranians are lying their asses off, and the British have begun cutting them off. If you were the country about to open the floodgates to a World War, would YOU rush in?
And that is indeed what we will be involved in - a world war. I'm not saying the Iranians don't need to bitch-slapped back to Sallahdin, they DO. But expecting anyone to pull the trigger without backing it up with data is not realistic.
This picture looks Photoshopped. There's a fringe around the foreground where it appears to have been pasted onto the background.
What would Fred Thompson do?
Also, there's a hard shadow across the GPS unit but no similar shadows on the deck of the ship from the ship's upper structures.
Make a TV Mini-Series about it? :)
Other than a heavy dose of "gravitas" I don't see the big appeal of Thompson.
You are right. It might be better to hold off until Iran has the nuclear bomb?
The shadow on the gps is probably from the upper part of the chopper and wouldn't be on the deck.
I believe the photo and see no signs of photoshop.
I don't think we know enough about Fred Thompson yet (or even if he will run). His main attraction is that he is not one of the other big three GOP candidates, at this stage.
What the hell?
It's true. That GPS was never on the moon.
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