Act of war. "Five British sailors taken hostage in Iran," from the Daily Mail, November 30 (thanks to Kris):
Five British sailors are being held hostage in Iran.The Foreign Office confirmed that a racing yacht owned by Sail Bahrain and crewed by five British sailors was detained by the Iranian Navy on November 25.
The yacht had been on its way to Dubai and, according to the Foreign Office, may have 'inadvertently', strayed into Iranian waters.
If confirmed, the detention of the British sailors will dramatically increase tensions between Iran and the West....
No kidding, really?
Here we go again.
The U.K. will mince around and be diplomatic whilst Iran blusters and puffs its chest out at the imagined slight.
If they don't release the soldiers the U.K. should consider it an act of war and take the necessary steps.
If war is ever inevitable, sooner or later, I vote for sooner. I imagine that the UK will apologize and ransom these guys and try to "put this behind us so we can move forward on a constructive basis, blah, blah, blah"
not an act of war; as far as we know, these people were in iranian waters. and yes, the brits will mince around; didn't they mince around when british sailors were detained? how is this worse?
strange to say, i still wonder if obama will let iran develop nuclear capabilities with no military response. didn't candidate obmaa say that a nuclear iran was "a game changer"? and wouldn't that suggest...
i hear you laugh, dear reader. i hear you laugh.
only in August we had 3 American straying into Iranian territory.
please adventurous: get a GPS (and a brain), learn how to use it, educate yourself about the region you are traveling in, and plan a route with a safety margin.
StillBreathing, last time this happened the Sailors weren't even in Iranian waters but in International waters that Iran says it owns.
The world gives credence to the illegitimate claims of a tyrannical Government by treating Iran with anything other than a cursory swat of a swift and violent nature.
The world gives credence to the illegitimate claims of a tyrannical (Iranian) Government...
And let us not forget that the young visage of the now aging Prez Mahmoud frequently appeared in the news back in 1979, when he led the takeover of American embassy in Teheran.
*** 4:65 ***
That's the problem with organizing a resistance to the Moslem world takeover now underway. Nobody remembers. We've gone all ahistorical, and the trouble with that is that doing that (and we are) could wipe us from the face of history, and that's a picture even uglier than Prez Mahmoud's ugly-ass face, young or old.
No doubt Britania will mete out swift and severe punishment for this offense.
My fellow sailors, note the unintendedly humorous marketing claptrap at www.teampindar.com:
"Team Pindar is one of the world’s leading independent sailing teams."
Translation: The "Kingdom of Bahrain" is skippered and crewed by a small group of imprudent fools whose names you should get to know so that you never, ever sail with them except, perhaps, with the understanding that they will be silent railmeat throughout the entire cruise or passage you make with them...even if they've memorized all 800+ pages of Bowditch and understand its every word and idea, can gybe the boat alone in 25 kts with the spinnaker raised, and so on.
We have here the inevitable result of the appeasement mentality that exists in Britain today towards Iran. After the groveling which took place when some British military were seized by Iran not that long ago, what could one expect but another go at it by thugs who look upon non-forceful measures by the West as evidence of weakness (only reinforced all the more so by the release of the Libyan Lockerbie bomber for reasons of "compassion"). More to come until Iran is taught a lesson. Hopefully it will be, but with pathetic leaders like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama it's basically up to the Israelis to make it show time.
Am I missing something here?
Nowhere does it say that the five "British sailors" were anything but civilians, yet the article has been misleadingly written in such a way as to hint or imply that the "British sailors" were assigned by the Royal Navy to crew a private racing yacht owned by some wealthy Dubai type.
As it stands, the article is a good example of how a dishonest journalist can "sex up" an article without actually telling an outright lie.
Ah, yes! The Lockerbie Bomber. Poor chap, just three months to live.
It has to be said that the therapeutic waters of Libya have worked wonders, have they not?
[PUKE]
Ahem, nowhere in that article does it say the crew were Royal Navy. Not sure how you'd read that into it.
Send in the Gurkhas.
Iran seems to be the master and commander of the seas. It is insane.
Yeah, somebody in the British government is going to get his left pinkie in a twist. Obama is probably chortling about it as it gives him even more reasons to engage the Iranian leaders.
SIGH!
{o.o}
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
What did ever happen to that mentality...?
"If confirmed, the detention of the British sailors will dramatically increase tensions between Iran and the West...."
Naaah, the only things that increase tensions are things like cartoons, Pope quotes, Israel's existence, minaret bans, Hugh's list of things that offend Muslims, etc. Muslims can do anything they want, and the West will call for interfaith, butt-kissing, dialoging, grovelling, self-hatred fests.
Britain's 'diplomacy' with the Islamic Republic of Iran is really dhimmitude. There are already some estimates that the five man crew of the yacht will not be released this year.
In the meantime, Britain's Labour government allows the Iranian regime to broadcast propaganda, 24/7, on its TV station, 'Press TV' -from its HQ in London!