As your mother might say, "Now, isn't that nicer than fighting WWIII?" This was shaping up to be the stupidest conflict since the War of Jenkin's Ear, but, fortunately, sanity prevailed, although, as happens distressingly frequently, Iran's President Borat gets to act saner than America's President Bush.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
What a shame! I was hoping to see the spectacle of enraged British college students storming the Iranian embassy in London and seizing Tehran's diplomats in retaliation. And doing it all armed with only pocketknives.
ReplyDeleteThe credit may belong less to Ahmadinejad than to some more pragmatic members of the Iranian government who thought this whole scheme was a bad idea. Reportedly, Syria also claims to have played middleman in the dispute.
Then again, maybe we just gave in.
There you go getting Left wing, Steve.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you have to drag Pres. Bush into this affair, the way any party-line Democrat would?
And how do you know that George Jr.'sdidn't help get the Brits released by his firm statement backing Britain last weekend, and by his refusal to negotiate over the release of the five Revolutionary Guards captured in Irbil?
By the way, aren't those so-called Royal Marines and that sailor woman soft and slack-ass looking? One suspects the British military nowadays is more Hollywoodian legend than reality.
By the way, aren't those so-called Royal Marines and that sailor woman soft and slack-ass looking? One suspects the British military nowadays is more Hollywoodian legend than reality.
ReplyDeleteI believe 7 were actual Royal Marines, the rest navy personnel of various stripes. I realise, however, that the Brits cannot compete with the Americans for toughness. Look, for instance, at that Steven Seagal film Under Siege. Even the ship's cook in that was a bad-ass motherfunster.
Syria played a role in the release? You bet they did! After Nancy Pelosi went over there and batted her eyelids at that Assad guy,(and did God only knows what else!)he was putty in her hands.
ReplyDeleteKidnappings and forced confessions = sane; saying "Give them back" = insane? Plus, it seems the Iranian president videotaped another bizarre anti-Western rant to go with his "gift" of releasing the soldiers. It's clear to me who the more dangerous and less sane party is in this affair - it's the criminal regime that instigated it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI quite like this Ahmadinejad fellow. Certainly more interesting than your average ayatollah.
ReplyDeleteIf we made Iran glow in the dark back in '79 when they seized our embassy we wouldn't have these troubles today.
ReplyDeleteSo help me my fellow paleocons, I watched Bill Kristol on FoxNews for a few minutes after Ahmadinejad released the soldiers. If you turned the volume down, and watched the neocon archduke's body language, you could tell he was just heartbroken. It was so obvious. He really was dissapointed that this couldn't escalate into a war with Iran.
ReplyDeleteMy sometimes cynical old-self thinks that getting in Iraq, and actually HAVING a resistance might have been part of the neo-cons plan all along (but not Bush's, he's way to stupid to think that far ahead). The resistance could then be blamed on "neighbors" that the neo-cons wanted to subdue anyway.............like Iran and Syria.
Rapture Reverends are only slightly behind in warmongering for an Iranian war than the mullahs. Its a wierd time in politics.
Miles
I have to agree with Derb on this one. I was really surprised by the utter lack of resistance on the part of these sailors. They didn't look like they were under much duress. Of course, the utter unwillingness of the British to defend themselves against an aggressor is even more surprising.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad this situation is over. There was a real danger of it dragging on and turning ordinary Americans, not just neo-cons, against Iran.
ReplyDeleteNPR did its best to smooth things over - labeling the Brits "captured" (a word that implies wrongdoing on their part a la "captured fugitive" or "captured behind enemy lines") rather than "abducted," which they use to describe al-Qaeders detained by the CIA in Europe.
NPR also tried to tamp down indignation against Iran by making the UK and Iran look equally belligerent. For example, they called the British position "hard line" for insisting that its sailors were in Iraqi waters. Americans love an underdog, and it was necessary to keep the UK from looking like one.
However, the neutral rhetoric wasn't having its desired effect on enough of the public opinion, so thank goodness this is over. One less talking point for the neo-cons.
"If we made Iran glow in the dark back in '79 when they seized our embassy we wouldn't have these troubles today."
ReplyDeleteDo you wonder why they want a nuclear deterrent.
Do you wonder why they want a nuclear deterrent.
ReplyDeleteWell, considering the fact that we did not nuke them back 1979, considering the fact that we didn't even come close to doing that, I would have to say "yes." This, after their repeated involvement over the years in terrorist acts aimed at the United States.