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| Britain |
| Daily Telegraph Columnist - Heading for war with Iran? |
| 2007-03-30 |
| I start to wonder whether it might not be time for us to get as nasty with other countries as they do with us. As we wait anxiously to see what will happen to our 15 hostages - for that is what they are - in Teheran, we should feel undiluted rage at the behaviour of other countries and institutions towards us. Mind you, when those third parties witness the drivelling weakness of the Foreign Office over the last week, and in particular the pathetic show put up by our Foreign Secretary - who must surely be just about the worst in our history - who can blame them? There is no doubt the 15 were in international waters when captured, or that they were undertaking a United Nations mission in pursuit of upholding UN resolutions. Yet the best the UN itself can do is pass a weak-kneed resolution describing its “grave concern”, rather than a tougher one calling upon all nations to “deplore” Iran’s behaviour. This is all the fault of Russia, to whom Mr Blair routinely cosies up, and whom the civilised world invites to its annual G8 summit meetings. Russia seems to think it isn’t worth “deploring” the kidnap of our sailors, so we had better start to show Russia what we think of it: by uninviting it from the G8 this year, and every year until it learns some manners. When not busy ordering the murders of his opponents, Vladimir Putin seems to enjoy hobnobbing with the leaders of civilised countries, so such a sanction would hurt. We don’t have the means to engage in gunboat diplomacy with Iran, and any special forces operation would be fraught with risks both for the hostages and their rescuers. For the moment, ever-stricter sanctions on Iran seems the only answer. America is resolute about this. So too, oddly, is the world’s greatest sanction-busting nation, France. So the scope for tightening the economic ratchet on Iran, and the means to do so, look healthy. However, we should be under no illusions about the effectiveness of such weapons. Saddam Hussein, after all, was put under sanctions for years. Real hardship was caused to his people, but almost none at all to him and his ruling clique. President Ahmadinejad of Iran has already threatened Britain about our involvement of “third parties” - that is, the UN - in the present dispute, showing his utter contempt for that organisation. He would treat sanctions with similar disdain, happily cutting off the noses of his own people to spite their faces. And all the time, the threat he and his inherent instability pose to us all would never cease growing. Whatever the immediate outcome of this crisis, Britain has some hard decisions to make. Is it worthwhile, any longer, to work through the United Nations? So long as a morally warped nation like Putin’s Russia calls the shots in the Security Council, no. We can make debating points about how odd it is that Putin deplores Islamic nutters when they attack his forces but is relaxed about them attacking ours, but in the end there is no point in bothering. The UN showed itself to be weak with Saddam Hussein. It is no better now. If we are going to continue to try to be a player in the Middle East, then we have to throw in our lot with the Americans, for no-one else makes the blindest bit of difference there. ... and more at the link |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #9 It's pathetic when the British upper lip is stiffer than its ... er, backbone. Yes, backbone is the word I was looking for. Where's all their uppity toffee-nosed blather about "Soft Power" now? Power is a mailed fist, not some flaccid noodle. Nowhere, nowhere has the West inflicted greater harm in return for what was done to it by Islam. Where's the punishment in that? If we're being stabbed, what use is it to only kick our attacker in the shins? Damaging the West, and even just threatening it, should be rewarded with an order of magnitude greater retaliation. When ten Muslims die for every Westerner in whatever latest Islamic atrocity, maybe then we'll see some results. The actual number is probably more like two orders of magnitude but I'm willing to start slow. And, please, do not try to use Iraq as an example of civilian casulties outnumbering that of our troops. Civilian Iraqis have been killed almost exclusively by their fellow Muslims. If someone has the actual civilian Iraqi death toll directly attributable to American troop actions, I'd love to see it. I'm confident it hovers somewhere well below 50% of our own losses. Islam must be made to feel our pain. Bomb our trains, watch some revered shrine get demolished, preferrably at prayer time on Friday. Fly loaded passenger jets into our occupied skyscrapers and kiss goodbye a major metropolitan center in the MME (Muslim Middle East). We must institute disproportionate retaliation if we are ever to have any hope of getting Islam's attention. Muslims must be taught to quake in petrifying fear of hearing about some new Islamic atrocity. The lot of them must be inspired to abandon their cities in anticipation of carpet bombing whenever another Islamic atrocity happens. They must be so inconvenienced and bedeviled that with each new terrorist attack they rush off to the nearest mosque and slit the Wahhabist imam's throat. Once Muslims are feeling greater pain than we are, perhaps then we'll begin to see some changes. Until then, we are only rewarding their infantilism and savagery. Not too good of a policy, that. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-30 23:04 |
| #8 They got a National Christmas Tree they can dim? Put every flag in the country at half mast? Give Jimmy Carter a call. He can fill you in on all the details... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-30 15:54 |
| #7 Notice what the writer thinks "getting nasty means: univiting Russia to G-8 meetings, deploring rather than expressing grave concern, unilaterally imposing stricter sanctions on Iran of the sort that the writer acknowledges only enriched Saddam Hussein at the expense of his people. The pivot of this piece is this one sentence paragraph: We donÂ’t have the means to engage in gunboat diplomacy with Iran, and any special forces operation would be fraught with risks both for the hostages and their rescuers. All the rest is an attempt to gild fecal matter. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-30 15:44 |
| #6 I can't believe I'm reading this in the Telegraph. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-03-30 14:50 |
| #5 Funny how some people ready to see the light---once their own bull is gored. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-03-30 12:41 |
| #4 Well, at least SOME brits are getting it. Hopefully more find that the UN and the EU path is the path to slow death and ruin. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-03-30 11:50 |
| #3 "I start to wonder whether it might not be time for us to get as nasty with other countries as they do with us." You-- and we as well-- should never have STOPPED getting as nasty with other countries as they do with us. The world overall would be a MUCH better place for everyone in it, if the Anglosphere did some serious ass-kicking instead of all this "civilized", diplomatic farting-around. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2007-03-30 11:42 |
| #2 I don't understand why the British don't simply remove their diplomatic personnel from Tehran and then give them an ultimatum: return the prisoners within 24 hours or your oil refinery will be nothing but a mass of twisted, smoking wreckage. And, after that, if you harm the first one of our soldiers we will destroy ever Iranian oil platform in the Gulf. The MMMs think they've got the upper hand. What they need to discover is that they've grabbed a lion by the tail and he's now VERY angry. |
| Posted by: Mac 2007-03-30 10:31 |
| #1 We may dismiss the statements by the British captives admitting fault as blatently false, coerced readings, but many around the world do not. That number will grow too - Goebbels understood that you can make most people believe even the most outrageous lie if you tell it often enough and strongly enough. Once enough people doubt the British position sanctions won't be enforcable. The West continues to be beaten in the propaganda war, which is one place we SHOULD hold all the advantages. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-03-30 10:23 |