This leader in the Telegraph yesterday - and the comments following it - should be preserved as a historical document summarising the international mess that our government has got our country - and servicemen - into. Some key comments:
With UKIP running this country no foreign power would dare to capture any British subjects travelling abroad ~ And thats a promise.
Simple questiona:-
1) What are our troops doing in Iraq
2) Who put in the Iraqi government and procured the execution of Mr Hussain
3) When was the last time that Iran invaded any country that was a neighbour of the UK, or EU
4) When will we stop killing people in Iraq
5) When will Blair stop killing our people as a result of his lies justifying the Iraqi war
6) When will Britain 'grow up' and smell the coffee - vis a vis the USA - even the Americans are beginning to desert Mr Bush.
Answers please.
An air and sea blockade of Iran and if that doesn't produce our servicemen, then an ultimatum - release them our we'll annhilate one of your cities with a nuclear strike.
Nothing would cheer our men more than to show some real fight, and we are going to have to fix the Iranians anyway.
Get off your a**e, Mr. Blair and do something.
warmongering is so easy from a desk and a computer
Launching tactical air strikes on selected military / industrial targets is certainly an option that is within the capability of what is left of the the once great R.A.F. However, when, after the first strike the Iranians publicly execute (say) 3 of the 15 hostages (including the female LS) just what do we do then?
Public pressure from the limp wristed, wimpish, unpatriotic public in Britain would make our subsequent surrender a certainty.
The only time to take military action is, unfortunately, after the release of the hostages which is unlikely to be soon.
The only possible use of that 'time to release' is for our Govt to actively and rapidly increase the capabilities of our Forces by bringing mothballed naval warships back into service, expanding the R.A.F capability by, if necessary, buying US or European aircraft (it takes us too long to build our own) and expanding the Army with new men and new kit.
All the above costs a LOT of money and, whilst creating much needed jobs for the civilian workforce, is not likely to happen with an anti-military Govt in power.
It seems unfortunate but we are going to have to rely on the EU to fully support maximum sanctions to effectively 'close down'Iran. That reliance does not fill me with hope. The only hope comes from persuading the EU countries (and others) that next time it may be their people taken hostage.
Seizure of all available Iranian assets, financial and material is a good start point, as is enforced reduction of their embassy staff and a ring of steel around their embassy to effectively imprison them. Limit and monitor their embassy communications and persuade our EU allies to do the same in the other countries of the EU.
Require all Iranian private citizens at present in the UK to register at a Police station within 24 hrs or face deportation, with re registration daily until our people are released.
If you believe the Iranians are naughty now, wait until they can thrust atomic weapons at you.
My views seem to follow those of Timothy Garton Ash:, that we should and hopefully will, find a way out of this with the help of European allies:
Iran is Germany's third-largest beneficiary of export credit guarantees, outdone only by Russia and China. Iran comes second to none in terms of the proportion of German exports - in recent years up to 65% - underwritten by the German government....
....So here's a challenge for the German presidency of the European Union: will you put your money where your mouth is? Or are all your Sunday speeches about European solidarity in the cause of peace and freedom not even worth the paper they are written on?
3 comments:
Sadly I feel we have lost the moral high ground as Terry Jones points out in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2047128,00.html
On ABC News this weekend, it's believed that the quiet diplomacy that the British "are known for" will end the crisis and that the rhetoric between the UK and Iran has lessened. This same dialogue (on the Sunday news broadcast) expressed "asurprise that the American President would use the term "hostage" to refer to the 15, thus potentially enflaming the situation. What do you think?
Roger - initially they are detainees.
In my mind, once Iran has no longer any legitimate reason to detain them, they become hostages or prisoners...
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