A Land Far Away

... So, why did the Iranians kidnap the 15 British military personnel?

Are they trying to force a war, knowing that if the US engages in another war with another country it will lose all three fairly quickly?

Did the Brits really stray into Iranian waters and Iran is showing they won't be pushed around?

Did the Brits not stray into Iranian waters, but Iran wants to make a point anyway?

Some evil plot by America to make Britain stay in the region?

An honest mistake?

Bush has said Britain has his "full support". That means he wants Britain to invade, and will join in with the invasion, but doesn't want to be seen as the aggressor in this one, right?

Pearl Harbor? Gulf of Tonkin? Or tempest in a teapot?

War will be easy. It will only take 300 after all to wipe em all out.

Er, I'm pretty sure the 300 got killed...

No way, Faramir lived. I mean, uh, one-eye d00d.

NickD wrote:Er, I'm pretty sure the 300 got killed...

Ok true, so we send in an even 600.

My guess - They needed more cards to play.

The UNSC just voted to impose new sactions on Iran in an effort to curtail it's uranium enrichment. While these sactions don't amount to much they do cost Iran in terms of diplomatic currency. In order to win back what they lost they had to do something. This is par for course with the kleptocrats the run Iran. When backed against a wall they take hostages in an effort to get the West to come to the barganing table.

To use a TV euphemism - I hope they've jumped the shark.

This action could definately be argued as an act of war by one UN member state upon another UN member state.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

The British seamen strayed off-course and/or their Iranian counterparts misread their navigation charts and before anyone figured out what the hell is going on, an international incident is born. And now nobody's going to be the first one to back down, what with national prides being at stake.

If this escalates, we're screwed.

Here's hoping for a swift, safe, and non-violent release of the prisoners.

My guess: they currently have 14 reasons for the "allied forces" not to bomb the shit out of them.

Oh - you killed one of your sailors. Here's a video of him as the bomb turns him into ash.

Bad for your approval ratings, huh? Bummer.

Iran kidnapped these folks illegally. Even when the Iranians showed a GPS coordinates that the Brits had on them it showed them to be in Iraqi waters not Iranian. Then, the Iranians realized they fucked up and said those werent the coordinates and now BAM....here are the real coordinates and produced a GPS with those Iranian coordinates.

The Brits are trying to do everything they can diplomatically and they should. Going through the UN is what their trying to do now and we all know the UN is full of shit and wont do anything. Russia has already hinted they will veto anything. So, the Brits will exhaust all their options with the UN and then have to make some real decisions. The USA didnt cause this (your a funny guy NickD to think this was our freaking doing). We will however stand up with our allies. We dont shurk responsibility and we will help the Brits out.

All this comes down to the Iranians trying to bluff. They want us to back off from the whole Nuke issue so they take some Brits hostage trying to put pressure on an ally of the US. They did the same shit a number of times in years past. The one major time was back when the US had our Embassy overran and our folks were held for a long time. This is how the Iranians roll...we know. Civilized? Nope. Savages...yes.

So...we wait. The whole hostage letters saying they did stray and all that is pure propaganda from the Iranians. No damn brit it would ever willingly say they did something to further the Iranian cause or just to get themselves out of a jam. I personally hope it doesnt escalate into something scary, but if it does then it does. Right now its a game of who blinks first. I just dont think the Brits will roll over and give in, though.

Stay tuned.

And Iran has 70 million reasons to give them up right quick before the "allied forces" bomb the shit out of them.

p.s. But we all know Iran won't give them up right quick. First, Ahmadinejad is stark raving mad. Second, he's done this before - five Americans in the hostage crisis of the 70's have fingered Ahmadinejad as the leader of the embassy raid - and Carter's failure to deal with Iran has apparently only encouraged him. And third, what does Iran really have to fear? Certainly not a Democratic controlled Congress in the United States of America that can't stomach a fight.

Dan - you're still a brainless jock with no grasp of the political reality of the situation. Let me spell this out for you:

THE PRECEDENT: Iran has abducted 15 British Royal Navy personnel.
THE PROBLEM: Britain wants her troops back safely.

That's the simple bit. Now, Dan / Cipher's solution:
THE BOMBING: Kill as many people as possible (up to 70 million in Cipher's post!).
THE OUTCOME: Iran has put those 15 people in the sites most likely to be bombed, and has probably warned the UK they've done so beforehand.
UPSHOT: The 15 British troops we wanted back all die, along with thousands of Iraqis that neither Danubus nor cipher cares about - which is fair enough.

I look forward to all the posts accusing me of woolly liberalism because I'd rather we gave diplomacy (of the overtly threatening sort) a chance to work before we condemn our own people to death from our own bombs for no reason...

feh, time everyone stopped pussy footing around and pused the red button on them. So the brits lose 14 people, id call that a fare trade to getting rid of one headache.

Roll up, morons! Let's hear what you have to say about the needless deaths of 15 troops - I want to hear from you particularly if you'd cut their throats yourselves, you brainless fucking chumps!