Bluesman

'A few WEEKS'?!? You 'HOPE SO'? Friend, I don't want this to sound like an insult, but this mindset is exactly WHY these guys were taken! It's weak, and as the saying goes, 'Weakness IS a provocation.'

No, 'a few weeks' to negotiaite and dither and cut deals and the Iranians end up with some concessions for us to buy back something we already own and that Iran has no RIGHT to is a LOSS, and a HUMILIATION. I'm sorry; I'm not used to paying for something that's mine.

Blow something up, and don't even send anything through diplomatic channels that sounds like a demand for the release of the fifteen. They know what they've done; they know what we mean. It's up to them to crawl to US to get them out of this. For once, let this be THEIR hostage crisis.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Dreadnought

Keeping nice and quiet im sure.

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Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

Bluesman

'Hope'?!? No, and here's another saying I like: 'Hope is not a method.' We can't simply HOPE everything is going to turn out okay, because if that's what we're doing about all of this - HOPING - it will NOT come out in our favor.

STRIKE THEM. Make this policy so expensive that they'll never think of doing this again.

Bluesman

She knew EXACTLY how to handle this kind of thuggery: send a fleet of warships stacked to the gunnels with the best of the Queens's troops and GET BACK WHAT'S YOURS.

pdf27

It seems highly likely that this is exactly what they're hoping for. Iran is a classic pressure cooker - huge numbers of unemployed young people, a repressive government, etc. One of the classic ways of taking the pressure off is to manufacture an external crisis - in which case the populace almost universally pull together and support the regime against an external threat. That's what Galtieri did in the Falklands, and I personally think that's what Iran is doing here. A military response plays into their hands and means they are more likely to frustrate our long-term goal (a democratic and non-threatening government in Tehran).

I have no objection to using whatever military force necessary if that's the only way to get our guys back safely. However, given the fact that this is a manufactured crisis then a delay of a couple of weeks in getting our guys back is acceptable if it wrecks the Iranian plan.

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Rule 1: Never trust a Frenchman
Rule 2: Treat all members of the press as French

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Dreadnought

It doesnt matter they deserve our backing 150% irregardless of what the world thinks. WWII cemented us together along with a few other allied countries even know we have our differences from time to time and view things in some what different perspective but in the core we know we belong together in battle because our morals and idealisms are very much the same.

"we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

Beat those drums as the new world backs them 150%!

Somaton

Bluesman,
You might be a military professional, and even a defense professional (?), but you are clearly not a conflict professional.

Iran just want to rattle the cage and see how the world respond to it. Don't play in their hands just yet.

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TopHatter

Somaton,
For your information Bluesman most definitely is both a military and defense professional.

It's what he's been doing for a living for the past 20+ years, both in uniform and as a civilian.

ExNavyAmerican

The IRanians think we're overextended, but as I said: we don't need troops to turn Iran into a parking lot.

By the way, have you heard the latest? The Marines have "confessed" to illegally violating Iran's territory. What happened to the day the Royal Navy would go in there, and teach them the meaning of "vilolating territorial integrity"?

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TopHatter

Here's an AP article

Iran: U.K. troops admit to illegal entry - Yahoo! News

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