It's just a matter of time
The Iranian strategy seems to be to try to drive a wedge between the US and Britain by conditioning the release of British soldiers on the US releasing the Iranians. I don't believe they really have any interest in their spies. This is all about divide and conquer.
I think the Iranians do not understand Western reaction to the taking of our soldiers. That is the flaw in their strategy and I think it will cost them. When Western soldiers are taken hostage, Western leaders are essentially given a blank check by the public when it comes to military force. That means the Iranians just voided their greatest asset - Western peace advocates in the media and on the left.
Blair convened them to explain why they won't be used. This will be yet another victory for those who dare, and yet another demoralizing loss for the West, who won't bother to defend itself, lest it appear like a "bully".
I hope the Ahmadinadjab just hit the fan.
The response should have been, "Sink it"
We're told that women should be included in combat roles for various reasons, but here's the downside. The article wouldn't have included that factoid if it didn't play on people's sympathies.
"The Shatt al-Arab 15 were, from the start, pawns in a perilous international game.
"It looks like too much of a coincidence," a senior Foreign Office insider confirmed.
I always thought, and still think, they were pawns right from the time they were taken.
A sad incident that hopefully will be resolved through negotiations. Probably an exchange of the British intelligence agents with the Iranians captured in Iraq?
Commodore Nick Lambert, frantically radioed back to his own top brass for instructions.
THERE IS YOUR PROBLEM
at least they did not contact gender bias attorney/regulator, and intercultural expert along with UN appointed attorney, but sure thats next
to borrow from recent historical revival, one wonders if the success of 300 stand at Thermopylae had a lot to do with chain of command being upfront in first line taking down the obvious threat
I bet the UN will send Iran a very stern warning in writing that will get them released. /sarc off
Unbefreakinglievable.
These are quotes from Iran I collected over the past two years
http://vincep312.home.comcast.net/iran.html
“The final goal of the revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”. - commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi
an advisor to the new Iranian govt says his country’s objective is the destruction of the evil in the world perputated by England and the nations derived from England
commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, said on state television, “The final goal of the [1979] revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”. “God willing, the 21st century will see the defeat of the U.S. and the Zionists, and the victory of freedom-seeking nations of the world”.
Commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, said on state television. “God willing, the 21st century will see the defeat of the U.S. and the Zionists, and the victory of freedom-seeking nations of the world. The final goal of the [1979] revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”.
The [Iranians] President’s chief strategist, Hassan Abbassi, has come up with a war plan based on the premise that “Britain is the mother of all evils” – the evils being America, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the Gulf states and even Canada, all of whom are the malign progeny of the British Empire. “We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization,” says Mr Abbassi. “There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them… Once we have defeated the Anglo-Saxons the rest will run for cover.”
The IRGC chief warned that Iran was seeing through “critical days” and “fate-determining years”. He described the purpose of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution as the “Salvation of Muslims” from the hands of the “oppressive U.S. and Israel”.
The writer finally tells us what the hell
COBRA stands for in the paragraph.
Did Javier Solana say this? Or did Blair? It was unclear to me in the post.
"There is nothing to be gained in provoking a confrontation, because that would be playing into their hands."
I agree with John Mill's thought below.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-John Stuart Mill
I think Iran has finally crossed the line. Sounds like they're heading for a serious butt-whooping. Russia and China better not get in the way either.
Iranian student groups called yesterday for the 15 detainees to be held until US forces released five Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq earlier this year.
Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, quoted an Iranian military source as saying that the aim was to trade the Royal Marines and sailors for these Guards.
The claim was backed by other sources in Tehran. “As soon as the corps’s five members are released, the Britons can go home,” said one source close to the Guards.
He said the tactic had been approved by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who warned last week that Tehran would take “illegal actions” if necessary to maintain its right to develop a nuclear programme.
Big Time "Talk".............no Action
The Islamists have had our number since Carter established the wimp doctrine and Clinton re-affirmed it. And now neither we nor our allies will be safe anywhere in the world, and somehow the left feels that this middle east mess is a result of Bush's doctrine. Can you believe it. They have had the worst foreign policy in the history of this country that we are just beginning to pay for and they want to transfer the blame and continue with more of the same fiasco.
All the mess we are in in the Middle East is because Carter failed to act (though Iran wasn't going to allow Reagan to be in office 10 minutes while they held the American hostages). Clinton proved to bin Laden (in bin Laden's own words and correctly so I might add) that America (at least the left) dosen't have the stomach to stand up for America and there by sends an engraved invitation to the Islamists, and the Kennedy's, Kerry's, Pelosi's, Murtha's and etc. of the world are lost in the fog of their own complicity in the root cause of this mess.
So, as I understand it - the Brits had a frigate there but the Commodore was ordered to hold his fire....
Well, why bother having a frigate there?
Save yourself some money - and get rid of the frigate and just have a bunch of inflatable rafts running about since you aren't going to use the fire power of the frigate anyway.
This is NOT the much vaunted British Navy of old. That was a Navy that controlled the world.
Now they can't even control some beach boats sent out by a two bit country like Iran to capture their people and equipment.
And....its the second time in a couple of years this has happened so its not some fluke.
It's a symptom -
If the British Navy is at this level of "fright" - we, the United States, are indeed alone.
Of course, there was the time when a two person motor boat was able to come alongside a U.S. N. war vessel and blew up and almost sank our destroyer. Killed our sailors. Because we forgot that it is a very old naval precept to always always always defend and protect the ship - especially in a hostile harbor. To allow a harbor craft to come alongside without challenge is inconceivable.
These people need to re-read some of the old naval literature - going back about 500 years.
Well, we are not only alone, we are also going down the same road.
I wonder how long it will take the American Liberals to claim it was all Bush's fault.
"The official notification, delivered in secure calls yesterday... "
PERHAPS NOT SO SECURE....