What a great twist of irony that the 15 British sailors currently being held by our suppossed enemy Iran are safer than the rest of the armed forces inside our friend Iraq.
The rhetoric coming from the Government is more subdued than i imagined it would be which leads me to one of two conclusions. The first is Blair has finally got it through his thick skull that military action fans the flames rather than douses them and plans to keep his diplomatic hat on this time .
The second is the UK do not want to 'shoot the starting pistol' before all the players are in place. He has bigger plans for Iran but this has come too early.
Hopefully, it is the first conclusion but while the arguments continue about whether the sailors were in Iraqi or Iranian waters at the time, the captured are going to be used as bargaining chips to force the release of the five Iranian Revolutionary Guards the US captured a few weeks back.
With our side's treatment of prisoners these last few years, these 15 better hope that no more Abu Ghraib-esque pictures turn up in the media.
10 comments:
They'd better hope there's a "Plan B" also..... the US doesn't like to trade prisoners.
Blair is going to face some tough decisions if he cannot persuade his pal in Washington DC to change his mind.
It's an interesting situation, one that is fraught. The Village Idiot is likely to throw petrol on the fire knowing that Britain might cop less static from the Muslim world if it attacked Iran rather than the U.S. or Israel.
Enjoy each day while you can!
Lucy - I think it's way too early to be patting the Iranians on the back and congratulating them on their "moral high ground" as compared to Britain and the US:
Hard-liners in Iran have urged the government to charge the 15 marines and sailors with espionage and put them on trial.
No official word has emerged on whether Iran's government will do so.
But, according to AP, Iran has begun questioning the sailors and marines.
"It should become clear whether their entry was intentional or unintentional. After that is clarified, the necessary decision will be made," AP quoted Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehzi Mostafavi as saying.
With all the apologists for torture currently among the allies of the British armed forces, I'm pretty f#cking glad I'm not one of these captured sailors.... Let's hope for a swift release.
Agreed, Cheezy. Even without that, I wouldn't want to be one of them.
Hard-liners by themselves do not a country make. We have some ourselves, the ones who are saying that the only reasonable thing to do is NUKE Iran. Hopefully, we aren't all being judged by what these few say, even though they say it loudly and frequently.
Lucy -
I think your relief that Tony the Poodle is trying diplomacy might be a bit misplaced.
See, he doesn't have much choice. This isn't meant as a slam against the British armed forces, but the truth is, Prince George's idiocy and the whole stupid Iraq invasion over the absurdly false claims of terrorism, ties to 9/11, and other insipid lies has made the US effectively impotent against any other problem. The Iranians know this, and are poking the west with a pointed stick. Blair is not about to engage a real military (Iraq was nothing more than a pack of half-starved yabbos with a few pop-guns), without his bigger, meaner, stupider cousin at his back.
So, when you can't punch, you have to resort to talk.
Ook ook.
Mark - I never patted anyone on the back or gave Iran any moral high ground. I did give Blair the benefit of the doubt though that diplomacy is being used but that could be down to Fez's point that he has no other option.
Hey, Fez, well said. Ook, ook, ook!
You should be running America instead of the quarterwit in the White House and the Military Maniacs in the Pentagon.
Are you available?
Daniel - In regards to your suggestion, all I can do is offer Groucho Marx's opinion regarding membership in clubs.
Ook ook
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