Iranian Piracy/Brit Hostage Crisis Post-Mortem -- Day 5
-- Thoughts on the British surrender
-- Britain Was Once Great Britain
Please don't offend the Iranians
Liberals respond to petty thuggery with indulgence
Jack Kelly
Patricia Hewitt, health secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet, was upset by pictures broadcast from Iran of the 15 captive British sailors and marines, reported Christopher Booker of the Sunday Telegraph.
"It was deplorable that the woman hostage should be shown smoking," Ms. Hewitt said. "This sends completely the wrong message to our young people."
When liberals cower when petty thugs make threats (which is pretty much whenever petty thugs make threats), conservatives, understandably, suspect them of cowardice. But Ms. Hewitt's bizarre response to her country's humiliation suggest something else is at work. ...
Most parents understand that if you give ice cream to a 2-year-old each time he throws a tantrum, he will have more tantrums, not fewer. But liberals have convinced themselves that the way to moderate the behavior of Islamic thugs is to offer them apologies and concessions whenever they behave thuggishly.
The infidels Allah is about to destroy, he first makes mad. I suspect that Mahmoud the Magnanimous (as journalist/blogger Jules Crittenden has dubbed the president of Iran) believes this. And with liberals taking his side against their own governments, who can blame him?
In case you didn't make it by yesterday:
- Iranian Piracy/Brit Hostage Crisis Post-Mortem -- Day 4
- Iran: 3,000 centrifuges installed
- Should The Sailors Sell Their Stories?
- UK bishops celebrate Iran’s kindness in freeing British sailors;
Update: Brits ban sailors from selling stories
- UK bans military from selling stories
- Is Iran blowing smoke about its “industrial level” nuke program?
- Analysts Not Buying Ahmadinejad's Nuclear Success Tale
*** Thoughts on the British surrender
Austin Bay
Last week Dean Barnett questioned the British sailors’ and marines’ decision to surrender to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Dean wondered if the phrase “fighting back was not an option” would be the epitaph on the grave of the Western world. A fair enough point to make about the confrontation with Islamo-fascism, but having chased Iranian and Arab dhow in RHIBs (rigid hull inflatable boats) manned by American sailors I understand how exposed and vulnerable the British sailors were. (A couple of weeks ago in a Creators Syndicate column I discussed small ship inspection and boarding operations in the northern Persian Gulf.)
The criminal kidnapping was certainly no Churchillian moment for the Royal Navy. I don’t think Dean and I disagree about the subsequent events; they were a moral disaster. Tehran goody bags and gimme suits have replaced blood, sweat, tears and toil.
But here’s how I see the tactical situation. The Iranians got the drop– they conducted a well planned and rehearsed surround and snatch. The sailors and marines were not in a warship when they were captured, they were in motorized rubber boats. Tactical surprise reinforced by heavy machineguns at close range (and lack of immediate backup) make surrender an understandable and probably appropriate decision. The situations strikes me as one of instant, futile slaughter.
Better planning, better coordination with the supporting forces, and tighter tactical security may well have alerted and saved the sailors and marines. However, would, should, and could are the words of hindsight when staring down the bore of a heavy machinegun. ...
*** Britain Was Once Great Britain
By Dennis Prager
It is painful to see the decline of Great Britain.
Greatness in individuals is rare; in countries it is almost unique. And Great Britain was great.
It used to be said that "The sun never sets on the British empire." That is how vast Britain's influence was. And that influence, on balance, was far more positive than negative. Ask the Indians -- or the Americans, for that matter. The British colonies learned about individual rights, parliamentary government, civil service and courts of justice, to name of few of the benefits that the British brought with them. Were it not for British involvement, India might still have sati (burning wives on the funeral pyre of their husband), would have no unifying language, and probably no parliamentary democracy or other institutions and values that have made that country a democratic giant, now on its way to becoming an economic one as well. But today, the sun not only literally sets on an extinct British empire; it is figuratively setting on Britain itself.
Two recent examples provide evidence: ...
*** (After being unable to post to this site for several hours)
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