The Iranian government may be held by mad messianic mullahs, but that doesn't mean that they are necessarily stupid...with the state of the British Navy, what better time to launch an attack against their personnel? A devastating analysis from the New York Post:
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.
Seems like the Iranians may have found their new Jimmy Carter in Mr. Blair - he's trapped, forced by the code of EU non-violence to limit his actions to strongly worded statements and the threat of more strongly worded statements. Should he react militarily, it is in essence a rebuke of the EU ideal that all conflicts can be resolved diplomatically. By possibly saving his own sailors (which, apparently, is a job our sailors might wind up doing due to Blair's insane military cutbacks), he could be severly undermining the EU in the process. What kind of pressure is Blair facing from his neighbors in Europe not to take any action at all; to "wait it out"?
Blair and the Brits should remember 1979 - the taking of the U.S. Embassy and its staff as hostages for 444 days, while a cowardly president tied ribbons around trees and pleaded for their release, destroyed American credibility around the world for years, and created the "paper tiger" meme that led to further terrorist attacks upon our forces and institutions worldwide.
If you can't back up your words with actions, nobody will take you seriously, and then you are in some deep sh*t. Blair is in a tough spot - his soft allies in the E-Union would frown upon any military action, while Blair's own weaking of his once-vaunted Navy has made any action that much more difficult to undertake. And if he doesn't act, the sight of him standing by helplesly as British sailors are manhandled through an Islamic show trial will weaken the international position of England to a point where their influence on foreign affairs will be greatly diminished.
Not a good spot to be in, but one cannot say that events were not leading up to this moment...how Tony Blair plays the cards he has dealt himself here will affect Britain and the West for the next decade. One can only hope he holds some of that staunch British blood within him; along with some of the strength and courage that has served that one-great nation so well for so long...
Well, maybe Mr. Blair will get lucky, after all...Scappleface gives us the outcome that the Left will insist is realistic:
Iran Blinks Under 'Cordial Pressure' from Tony Blair
(2007-03-27) — Iran announced today that it would release immediately the 15 British soldiers and marines it took hostage last week to avoid further “cordial pressure and devastating pleasantries” from British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“In this test of wills,” said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “we acknowledge the superior power of the adversary. We cannot withstand another onslaught of polite diplomatic language nor the withering, if unspoken, consternation we detect in the eyes of Tony Blair....
Yeah...keep dreaming....
No comments:
Post a Comment