Thursday, April 05, 2007

The British are coming, the British are coming

Word is that the plane carrying the British hostages from Iran has touched down on free soil. I am very thankful that these people are home and a global incident has been avoided.

However, I'm not sure we're going to be thankful in a few months. Iran seems to have come out ahead on this, all the way around. The British sailors and marines apoligized for their "error" and thanked the Iranian government several times.

While I'm a big believer in the theory that it's best to survive another day, the acquiescing in this case seems to have gone a little too far. I'm holding out comments on the individual sailors and marines until more information comes out, but I can't see anything that comes out looking strong against terrorism or against the Iranians.

It's odd that this happened so close to the 25th anniversary of the British/Argentine Falkland event.

There are several things that haven't come out completely (and may never come out). Word was that Boeing was testing a new bunker busting bomb that would penetrate. Called the MOP - Massive Ordnance Penetrator - word was it could penetrate Iran's bunkers and reach their nuclear facilities. Also, apparently, the USS Nimitz repositioned itself closer to Iran as did several British warships. Did these events have effect on the decision to release the hostages? Maybe we'll find out and I'll take back these words, but so far, it doesn't look that way.

For now, I'll steal some of the words I heard on the radio: "Margaret Thatcher was the last real man that England had"

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