Parihaka

.

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In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

lemontree

May God bless that lady.

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Cheers!...on the rocks!!

Garry

Few years back I had somewhat different perspective visiting Iran..... they are very much seduced by US movies, cola, and mass culture. Many wanted to immigrate to USA to earn better living иut I remember they were really NOT friendly to USA

[quote=T_igger_cs_30;362315]Sorry man.... I misdirected my post

Officer of Engineers

Captain, how do we get such beautiful wives?

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Chimo

Semper Fi

MI6 should of sent 007 to Iran.

astralis

Who Got the British Sailors Released? | TIME

Who Got the British Sailors Released?
Wednesday, Apr. 04, 2007 By CATHERINE MAYER/LONDON AND AZADEH MOAVENI/TEHRAN

British navy personnel, seized by Iran, wave to the media after their meeting with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 4, 2007.

The President of Iran was clearly relishing his role as beneficent liberator of the 15 British Marines and sailors detained by Iran for nearly two weeks. At a press conference today, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the release a "gift to the British people" on the occasion of Easter as well as a commemoration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. The smiling President then met with the British detainees, nodding his head munificently as they lined up to offer thanks for their release. "It is for Islam," he reminded one. He joked to another: "You ended up on a compulsory visit, didn't you?"

As much as today's events appeared to be another episode of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad show, the Iranian president's actual role in ending the crisis may have been less than meets the eye. The office of the presidency in Iran does not really have a say in matters of foreign policy. Indeed, British analysts were quick to credit another political personage for the resolution of the drama. John Williams, the former Director of News of Britain's Foreign Office, asserts that Dr. Ali Larijani, the secretary general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was more important in calling the shots. "It seems that around the weekend, Dr. Larijani decided to settle this and took control," says Williams. "He has proved himself a significant power broker, a man who, if he feels it is in Iran's best interests, will do business with the international community." Other observers warn against giving Larijani too much credit. Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, they say, may have decided that Iran had squeezed as much advantage out of the situation as possible and simply got Larijani to do the legwork to end the crisis.

Observers in Britain don't doubt that the release of the detainees was in Iran's best interest. "If the saga had dragged on, it would have led to an escalation of international opinion against Iran," says Chris Rundle, a former British diplomat in Iran, noting that it took Iran 13 days to coordinate its policy. Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's former ambassador to the U.S., describes the decision as "a shrewd move. The detainees were a wasting asset." The sudden announcement also reinforced a sense that Iran, and not Britain, was dictating the pace.

Having Ahmadinejad deliver the breakthrough news may have been intended to buttress that image. He remains a symbol of Tehran's defiance of the West, and, for a politician of limited power, Ahmadinejad still knows how to play his role to maximum advantage. Nazenin Ansari, the diplomatic correspondent of the London-based Persian-language weekly Kayhan, believes he and Iran's hardliners have benefited from the showdown with Britain. "What we have seen is a shift to the right," she says. Reformists had been making progress, but "in Iran politics is all about changing the atmosphere. The current has now shifted in the same way it did during the 1979 hostage crisis."

In his press conference, Ahmadinejad said the captives would have been let go sooner but that the "British government behaved badly, and so it took a little while." When asked what prompted the sudden release, he said London had sent a letter promising that such incidents would not be repeated. While careful to point out that the British sailors were being released "as a gift, and not as a result of the letter," the president's reference to a British concession served as a face-saving device, rationalizing the sudden release after much clamor in Iran for a possible trial of the British service personnel.

The Iranian leadership — including Larijani, Ahmadinejad and certainly Khamenei — believes that Tehran's popularity among the world's Muslims, particularly for its face-off against America, gives it leverage in dealing with the West. "Iranians had bruised egos because of international pressure over their nuclear program and the detentions of their personnel by the U.S. in Iraq," says Ansari. "What we've seen is a public relations exercise to take command of the Arab street once again." Says Shahid Malik, one of the first Muslims elected to Britain�s parliament: "This was yet another example of how adept Ahmadinejad is at communications in the way he targets the Muslim and non-Muslim world." During the press conference, Ahmadinejad made the expected jabs at the West, referring to the U.N. Security Council as "an organization they've created" and its resolutions as "pieces of paper they keep passing." He then accused Britain of involvement in a series of bombings in Iran's ethnic minority provinces in the past two years, while saying he would avoid going into detail lest the session "turn bitter."

Downing Street welcomed the move with public caution and mopped brows behind closed doors. As the crisis dragged on, government sources acknowledged that Iran's intransigence was exposing Britain's comparative impotence. It had failed to secure a strong denunciation of Iran's actions from the U.N. Security Council; its European allies were balancing support for Britain against their business interests; and although Prime Minister Tony Blair warned a failure to reach a quick resolution would lead to a "new phase" in response to the detentions, nobody detected in his words the martial sounds of rattling sabers. "There's no mood here for military adventures in Iran or elsewhere," says Malik. "Iraq wasn't what we thought it would be. There's a somber mood in this country."

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Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Elbmek

The sea region in question is recognised by the world as Iraqi or international waters, not sure which BUT it is not recognised as Iranian. Therefore, to my mind, this was kidnapping (piracy) on the high seas.

I have just been reliably informed in my own forum that these "soldiers" are being allowed to sell their stories !!!! The following is a post I placed in my forum:

Ok, I know what I did in the Army, what exercises I frequently didn't go on, which mountains I didn't actually climb and which desert I didn't suffer the intolerable heat in BUT, to my mind I am more of a soldier than these as I would almost certainly not given up so easily, not cooperated with these idiots, sorry, Iranians, and would not consider myself a HERO of the nation back home.

Call it ethics, morality, whatever, but I would be ashamed of the badge if I had done what these did, or didn't do. And now, to allow them to make money from it as well!!!

Sorry people, the Army we all knew and loved and gone - welcome to the world of compensation, welcome to the world of the handbag brigade and welcome to the complete lack of defence we now enjoy. We are now Dad's Army but we have more bottle than these current incumbents of Her Majesties Uniform.

This is really beginning to get my back up. I am going to speak to the MoD about compensation for a certain incident in my distant past where I was treated NOT according to the Geneva Convention - NOT!

No, this was treated at the time as part of Army life, toughening up, part of the whole picture, unlike these so called "marines" I took it, suffered it, then got up and carried on with my life. No compensation, no nothing!

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Never lie, then you have nothing to try and remember.

Elbmek

I don't doubt it.

Radical muslims not the rank and file.

Really? By mentioning it he has ignited a mythical torch.


Comparative???


In other words, we were "on our own" as in most cases involving our so called "European brothers". Say what you will against, or for, the USA, at least they made the "right noises" !!

I am not really politically motivated nor am I a real "expert" in World Affairs but, like many, I have opinions.

glyn

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Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

the jackal

brit or yanks....but the feeling is both have no @@@@ to do anything about this...

Elbmek

This is Vietnam all over again. A quick surgical strike, polish off the baddies, and be home for Christmas, so to speak. Now, there is no way out but to continue the struggle against non Iraqi's who are infesting the country.

glyn

Ray

Tigger.

Mrs Tigger seems to have more brains than some!

(Tips hat to the lady!)

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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Ray

How many who are commenting on the Marines captured by the Iranians have been Prisoners of War?

Or have interrogated PsW on return?

Of course, selling stories is ridiculous!

Jackal,

Aren't you a Pakistani, if I remember correctly?

HistoricalDavid

I ask you and anyone who bemoans the lack of action (and I don't think you mean peaceful action)...

What tactic could get those soldiers back, considering how the Iranians know to hide hostages and spread them out from the Operation Eagle Claw fiasco?

What could have been realistically done?