Posted by
Mr. Anonymous on Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:47:04 PM
I think there was a time awhile back when the British were a prouder people. When their military would not so easily surrender and allow themselves to be captured, as happened a week ago in the Persian Gulf. If you've been asleep for the past week and a half, you should know that the British navy was inspecting merchant ships in Iraqi waters, under orders from the UN. Two rigid rafts hold 15 sailors had just inspected a ship when an Iranian boat moved in and captured the sailors.
The Iranians claimed that the sailors were in their territory. But a GPS identification by the British placed them 2 kilometers inside Iraqi waters. Worse, the coordinates given by the Iranians of where the sailors were picked up was in the same location! They flat out contradicted themselves! Of course, when they realized they had screwed up, then they release coordinates the next day that were in Iranian waters. What arrogance.
But what disturbs me is Britain's lukewarm efforts at retrieving their men. They "demanded" their release. They "refused to negotiate". Meanwhile the Iranians showed broadcasts of each and every one of them apologizing for entering Iranian territory. The men were obviously coerced and nobody took it seriously. But I can't help but wonder why the British didn't wield a bigger stick.
What would have happened if Tony Blair had told the Iranians, "I'm ordering a battle group to proceed directly to the Persian Gulf. When they arrive you will have one last chance to return our men, unharmed and unabused. If you do not, then we will fire a cruise missile into Tehran, and do so once every hour, on the hour, until our men are released. You have been warned."
The Iranian's would have hollered and howled like the jackals they are, no doubt. And they would have held the British sailors until that battle group arrived. But would they have kept them if the British actually did launch a cruise missile? Or would they have then caved in and capitulated? As it is now, they know they can bully the British and get away with it, even when they make themselves look like fools in the process.
So I ask, where is the British resolve? (I'm afraid the US would have done exactly the same thing. Yes, the men were finally released, but only because the Iranians got one of their captured diplomats back from Iraq. That's when the Iranian president "pardoned" the sailors and returned them as a "gift" to the British. The whole episode makes me nauseous).