that this means wah!
Iran seized 15 British naval personnel who were conducting “routine boarding operations’’ in Iraqi waters, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.
“The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters,’’ the ministry said in an e-mailed statement. “We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level.’’
The incident occurred in the Arabian Gulf at about 10:30 a.m. Iraq time today, the ministry said. It gave no details of the units and vessels involved. Britain is demanding the immediate return of the military personnel and vessels, and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has summoned the Iranian ambassador in London, the ministry said.
It’s not the first time U.K. naval forces have clashed with Iran in the region. In June 2004, Iran held eight British servicemen for three days after capturing them in the Shatt al- Arab waterway that runs along the border between Iran and Iraq.
Iran, which also captured three British vessels in the 2004 incident, said the Britons were in Iranian waters and paraded them blindfolded on television, forcing them to make statements apologizing for their “mistake.’’ The U.K. crews said they were escorted forcibly into Iranian waters.
(h/t) Phil Smith
No chance this action is related to this, of course.
I believe that it would be fair to say that David Thompson finds this cowardly and malign:
What’s unfair, indeed despicable, are efforts by Islamic groups to cow dissent and stifle criticism with a well-rehearsed pantomime of victimhood and the projection of false motives. Pretending to be hurt in order to assert one’s will over others, even violently, or to gain unreciprocated favours, or to exert control over what others may say and think, is cowardly and malign. Let me say that once again. It’s cowardly and malign.
Please tell me that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is not a realistic scenario.
Detroit’s Problems Stem from Robocop
So can we expect the British to follow Bush’s example with the Chinese and our Air Force personnel, who managed to splash a Chinese fighter using a 707? Will the British avoid escalation and quietly negotiate their release? Or will the British go all Mayaguez on their asses, in the manner of the late great Gerald Ford? Perhaps a compromise solution could be reached – bomb (near enought to break windows in) the French Embassy in Tehran – as Reagan did in Tripoli, Libya.
We shall now witness the awe-inspiring power of jaw-jaw in action.
I don’t know . . . there is a rather interesting confluence occurring here. The French (Sacre bleu!)nuclear carrier DeGaulle links up with the American TF in the Gulf on Wednesday, the (apparently Iranian-backed)perpetrators of the Karbala kidnaping/murders get rounded up, the embassies in Teheran are stepping up their emergency evacuation planning…
Just sayin’.
What are the British going to do about it? After Gordo Brown got through with the Navy budget they’re down to two minesweepers, the admiral’s barge, one Hawk trainer and the Beefeaters…
I always liked the story of Captain William Pakenham, who went ashore from a warship anchored off the Turkish coast when he heard there was rioting going on, and that the lives of innocents were in danger. Rather than wait for the landing party, he walked into town and confronted the perpetrators. His instructions to the interpreter were, “Inform these ugly bastards that I don’t intend to tolerate any more of their beastly behavior.” They complied, apparently.
And that is approximately what Margaret Thatcher would have said, if she were in Ten Downing Street right now, I think.
“Cry havoc and let slips the dogs of war….”
Give us a whiff of Tonkin.
Well, it’s funny that the Russians suddenly got concerned about their payment schedule. I think that Iran’s unilateralist foreign policy may prove expensive.
Right, because these were imaginary British Naval personnel captured by fictional Iranians and taken to the Land of Counterpane to be paraded on a pretend Iranian television network.
Do you ever resolve to not be an ass for one day, Cleo?
“Brezhnev took Afghanistan
Begin took Beirut
Galtieri took the Union Jack
And Maggie over lunch one day
took a cruiser with all hands
Apparently to make him give it back.”
If I had written this, I would have struck out the “apparently.” And I would have added, “AND YOU GO, GIRL.”
Anyone wanna take bets on, if this leads to talks of putting extra pressure on Iran, the nut-roots will start chanting “no blood for our sailors”?
TW-child31 Too perfect.
Maybe President Bush should just snatch Ahmadinejad and give him to PM Blair—it’s not like diplomatic protocol means anything to Iran.
Maybe President Bush should just snatch Ahmadinejad when he visits the UN tomorrow—as diplomatic protocol means nothing to Iran.
This isn’t the first time this has happened, mind you…
Hey—sorry for the double post . . . . guess this thing was on.
NEWSFLASH
On the 14th of this month, the Emperor Misha set loose his army of puppies to invade Misha Watch and fight off the threat it posed.
In the fierce battle that followed, the elite 3-man SAS squad from Misha Watch – The Dog Catcher, LC Hastings and Dwight, inflicted heavy casualties on their opposite numbers. The following puppies are thought to have perished in action:
juandos
LC Gunsniper
Ten-Ten
Merc
Gene
Brian the sailor
rudytbone
LC 0311 crunchie
RightWingRocker
LC JackBoot-Ambassador
caveman82952
Holden Caulfield
sig94
LC Beeblebrox
RobertHuntingdon
UnfrozenCavegirlBlogger
Dawnsblood
Sir Christopher
tw111
Beaker
LC HOGHEAD
LC Wes, Imperial Mohel
jaybear
friendofbob
Darth Bacon
baboo
LC Wil
Gutshot74
Steve
Pogue Mahogue
Cheapshot911
Chuck Heston
fanbladesaresharp
Cannon Fodder
MadMOnk
Anonymouse
Q_Mech
Mrs. M
BigDogg
LC Moriarty
Ozzman002
packmember
LC Staci, Lady Heather, Blackiswhite, Imperial Agent Provocateur and Radical Redneck are the only puppies reported to be putting up some resistance to the severe onslaught from the MW SAS squad.
Misha Watch is reporting that there have been no casualties on their side.
Unfortunately, those guys didn’t understand anything but violence.
From the David Thompson article;
Doesn’t that kind of sound alot like our leftist progressives? Just wonderin….
Small wonder that these stooges sympathize with terrorists.
(1) You’re dealing with a great evil.
(2) If it ends up being the last standing after killing the holders of all other ideas, then it is superior by definition.
(3) This is why we have to fight; this is why we have to win.
Uh, Newsflash, you may not have noticed this, but no one gave a rat’s ass about whatever it is you’re on about the first time you posted it. This time is no different, and the next time won’t be either. So please, don’t bother. BECAUSE OF THE BANDWIDTH!
Semanticleo, now that you’ve gotten the projection out of the way, what is your take on the Iranian posture and the actions they’ve taken?
Perhaps we should give the pushy little buggers a “navy-ectomy”…
I am wondering why the sky wasn’t filled with screaming fighter jets about 3 minutes after they closed in on the Brit vessel.
If Cleo runs true to form it will be something along the lines that the Brits deserve this because they followed The Chimporer into this illegal war for empire, oil, and the cancelling of TotalSA’s contracts with the wholly secular and non-threatening Hussein regime; thus forcing the Iranians (who are the true victims here) to attack these Brits and take them hostage.
Which they deserved, the Zionist neocon stooges.
A preponderance of naval artillery has a way of making people more compliant.
Didn’t the Brits just pass a bill in Parliment to upgrade their nuclear submarine fleet? I guess with the other stuff above it’s all or nothing.
Ahmadinejad reads the political trends in Britain as opportunity for some effective sound bites. The right response is for the Brits to come down on the Iranians like the hammer of god and take their people back forthwith. Ignore the media when they play the jihad’s victim card (like I’m sure the Israelis wish they had last year). If they don’t, it’s win/win for the Iranians against the Brits now and when they judge the conditions right, in any similar move against the US in the future.
And it’s not unreasonable to expect something similar against US civilians, troops, or sailors if the House appropriations bill gets past the oval office and the Iranians again establish the precedence of negotiating illegal seizures of western citizens with the Brits. Once we say we’re committed to lose by 9/08, the Iranians could toss the dice like they did against Carter knowing full well that the probable response – from the house and senate this go round – would tie the president’s hands on a military reaction. If not and we stage a military response, the jihad’s useful fool support groups in the US give them victim status and attack the administration for ignoring the apparent will of the people to declare defeat in the WoT. We don’t stage a military response, and the Iran’s mullah’s again celebrate defying the great satan and/or it’s allies for the edification of their masses.
So again, win/win move for the Iranians as long as they can depend on fellow travelers in the western nations to either prevent an effective response or frame it to the Iranian’s advantage if one is attempted.
So the British sailors weren’t armed? And they had no communication to request backup? Like maybe an air strike on the Iranian vessels?
I never thought I’d say this, but where’s Maggie Thatcher when you need her?
Pretty damn puss of the Brits. This is the second time thats happened in the last two years. Don’t those guys fight before being overrun anymore or is that, like, so last century?
If not mistaken, AEGIS & AWACS could have seen where the fuckers went with them. The gulf is so loaded with U.S. ships that you’d think it were Norfolk. Why can’t we go get them?
Never a better time, to kick off the inevitable…
That’s funny. Semanticleo is engaging in Preemptive Conspiracy Theorying.
Every act of war now has a “whiff of Tonkin” about it, just as every war–no matter how just–has a whiff of Vietnam. Every detention has a whiff of Abu Ghraib, and every interrogation has a whiff of torture. Every killing has the whiff of an assassination. If you dwell too long in the lefty fever swamp, you start getting the vapors.
But insurgents who bomb marketplaces: does that have the whiff of “terrorism”? Muslims who use their faith to justify killing: does that have the “whiff” of Islamofascism? I’m sorry–I forgot that the word “Islamofascism” has the “whiff” of racism. I should be more sensitive.
Dude, don’t bogart that Tonkin.
Supposedly, they were a boarding party from a British frigate. That frigate had to have been right there. The British used to courtmartial captains for “cowardice in the face of the enemy.”
That whining sound you hear is Drake, Nelson, and Churchill spinning in their graves like high speed lathes….
When I hear the phrase “Islamofascism†I don’t think the speaker is a insensitive racist. I think he’s an idiot. That’s just the way it is.
Whenever markgate posts a comment I don’t think I’m hearing a bitter whiny loser – I know I’m hearing a bitter whiny loser.
You do know that in the Gulf of Tonkin incident that there was still an attack that is not in dispute, right? On 2 August 1964 the Maddox was attacked 28 Miles from the Vietnamese coast by three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats.
I think the sky should have been filled with smoke… holy crap, how can I get the Pentagon contract for carbon offsets.
I propose to plant 100 trees for every Iranian revolutionary Guard ship that bursts into flame for the price of $1M.
I propose to plant 100 trees per week to offset ongoing operations in Iraq for the price of $1M per week.
Laugh if you want, but it’s cheaper than the pork the Democrats filled the latest bill with… I might even kick Jeff down enough for a pair of ‘dillo skin boots
When I hear the phrase “Islamofascism†I don’t think the speaker is a insensitive racist. I think he’s an idiot. That’s just the way it is.
Posted by markg8
There ya go. Workin’ without tools again.
markg8:
Why?