Iran Humiliates Hostages, All Of Britain

New video shown on Iranian TV. Hot Air has several additional links. Iran released a letter from the female hostage calling for withdrawal from Iraq. I wonder if Pelosi and Murtha helped them write it?

See the Hot Air link for bits from Steyn and others. This entire episode is thoroughly disgusting. I don't hear the UN or any factions of the International community screaming about the Geneva Convention now. Iran is degrading and manipulating British sailors and marines, one of them a woman, and the world is probably waiting for America to do anything provocative so they can somehow blame this all on us.

There's no backbone left in the West and Iran knows it.

Were you in essence the CIC of British forces, would you act? For the left, I'll just assume you'd kiss Iran's ass - so feel free to skip the question.

Comments

[Hard Right]

Yeah, the left uses "smooth tongued" manuevering. Everyone else calls it what it is-appeasment and surrender. We saw how that "manuevering" worked with Saddam, and Iran, and South Korea, and Hitler...

[Fred Beloit]

Zif: "The left uses smooth-tongued diplomats..." and "...but the left likes to employ slower, more consistent methods that produce less property damage." Ziffy, think Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Dresden. Think FDR and HST. Where are they now that we need them? What do we have now? Kerry, Gore, Hill, Obama, and the good-looking guy with the expensive hair do, sort of a Tom Cruise on tranquilizers. Oh and don't forget that silver-tongued charmer Dean.

[Zifnab]

*rolls eyes*
Nixon in China. Saddam without WMDs. The shutdown of the N.Korean nuclear program under Clinton (which promptly reopened when Bush backed out and wasn't closed again until Bush agreed to the exact same plan Clinton had negotiated half a decade ago). The fall of the Berlin Wall. The first free elections in Russia. Forming the EU and spreading it eastward through Europe.

All major accomplishments - Europe has been trying to unify under sword and gunpoint since the fall of Rome - accomplished with a minimum of violence.

I can't even say its just the "left" that employes diplomacy. Henry Kissenger knew when to drop a bomb and when not to as well as Madeline Albright. Truman brought the Marshall Plan to fight Communism without starting a war in Germany or Hungary. FDR sat down with Stalin to talk of peace at the end of WW2. And the world has benefited from each of these leaders' wisdom.

[wjo]

Zifnab:

What happens when the mullahs tell Britain to go to hell? What does Britain have with which to bargain?

You are correct that force is not always the solution, but diplomacy without a credible threat of force is an empty vessel. Bluffing only works if your bluff is not called.

[Zifnab]

Iranian assets outside their boarders? Iranian nationals living abroad? The Iranian embassy in England? Trade rights? The seat at the UN?

The Iranian population isn't as fond of their leaders as it looks. The country already had one revolution and the Mullahs work very hard to keep from having another. There are many ways to pressure Iran, but killing Iranian civilians really isn't one of them.

[Zifnab]

For all its worth, Iran might really just be looking to trade.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_raids_Iran_Consulate_General%2C_Russia_says_it_is_unacceptable

[Hard Right]

Zif, as usual you have to lie to support you distorted views. Clinton knew NK was not abiding by the agreement AND DID NOTHING.

As for Saddam not having WMDs the credit goes to Bush Sr. Clinton did nothing for 8 YEARS except let Saddam ignore inspectors. In fact CLINTON and the DEMS thought he had WMDs.

Clinton allowed top secret info to go to China for canpaign cash.

Reagan is responsible for the fall of the Berlin wall. The lefties had no choice as they'd lost and the country was verging on total collapse.

Madeline Not-So-Bright has shown herself to be a flaming idiot and tyrant coddler. Hardly a good example. Kissinger isn't so great either.

Europe had to form the EU because economically they were getting their asses kicked. They still aren't doing so hot thanks to their drive to create a socialist utopia. Not to mention their kissing up to Islamofascists is going to spell much trouble for them down the line.

As for FDR and Truman, they would be kicked out of today's Democrat party.

Yup, you sure have a lot to be proud of.

[Hard Right]

Again, where is the outrage for the treatment of British prisoners from you lefties? Nowhere because you care about the enemy more than the innocent. Not to mention such incidents like Abu-Ghraib gives you a chance to bash America which they love to do.

[nowinger]

Europeans live longer than Americans, they work less and, when adjusted for that fact, are more productive. The European economy is strong and improving and unemployment is at a record low. Germany's economy is nearly recovered from the costs of reunification. Everyone has healthcare and 5 or 6 weeks paid vacation every year. Sounds like it absolutely sucks. This is why wingers stick to rhetoric only, every time they try to cite some facts, the truth always turns out to be the polar opposite of whatever they've said it is.

[wjo]

Nowinger:

I missed those reports of low European unemployment, unless your definition of low is "lower than the previous high levels". Where are you getting your productivity figures, your mortality figures and other data?

Give me citations not rhetoric.

[LOL]

" We need to tell the EU that if they don't get on the bad wagon with us"

hmm... a classic freudian slip. The wingers "let's just bomb it" is a bad-wagon no one's going along with anymore

[Zifnab]

"Clinton knew NK was not abiding by the agreement AND DID NOTHING."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01korea.html?ex=1330405200&en=37430b9fcca9512c&ei=5088&
Now you're the one lying, because the Bush Admin "Kim was cheating!" reports got debunked just last month. Even the bombs they made were out of plutonium, not enriched uranium, as Bush claimed Kim was enriching. Intelligence officals openly conceded their serious doubts, covered up by a cowardly administration until now.

And I've yet to see a link from either wjo or HR to back up any of the bunk they've been coughing up. I think I speak for every evil liberal on these boards when I say before you accuse Clinton of selling secrets to the Chinese or FDR being disowned by the Democrats, Link. Plz.

[wjo]

Zifnab and Nowinger:

My opinions are my opinions. I don't need to link to these.

As for facts: In order of Population Growth, Real GDP, and GDP/Per Capita from 2002-2006 and as of 2006 here you are: Germany: 0.0;0.9; $36,315.00; France: 0.4;1.5; $36,657.00; Austria: 0.6; 1.9; $39,237.00; Sweden: 0.4; 2.2; $39,532.00; Britain: 0.4; 2.5; $39,055.00; Denmark: 0.2; 1.7; $50,715.00; Czech Republic: 0.0; 3.9; $13,406.00; Ireland: 2.0; 5.2; $48,107.00; Belgium: 0.2;1.4;$35,934.00; Switzerland: 0.7;1.4; $50,386.00:
BIG BAD USA: 1.0; 2.4 $42,024.00.

I get these all from The Economist, a newspaper noted for its fuzzy math (no link because it it subscription based). Funny thing is, USA figures are an average from Hawaii to Florida. Even you can understand that a state by state comparison would show greater variances between European states and US states(e.g., Mississippi v. France or California v. France).

Please explain to me how in EUtopia the states with the most invasive governments are the ones with growth rates and real GDP lower than the US?
Shouldn't the reverse hold true if your theories are correct? We ain't perfect, but I'd rather live in a country with a dynamic economy than a stagnant one.

[Hard Right]

Lieberman losing the nomination isn't proof? Not to mention FDR and Truman were far more Conservative than the Dems are known to tolerate. And don't give me that Blue Dog crap. They have voted in lockstep with the party so far.

And Ziff, way to cherry pick an article that you think supports your belief and disproves mine, but does neither. Here's why.

Dick Morris: Clinton Knew of North Korean Nukes

NewsMax.com

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003 9:48 a.m. EST

Ex-President Bill Clinton knew that North Korea had resumed its nuclear weapons program at least two years before he left the White House - long before he now claims - according to former Clinton White House insider Dick Morris.

Responding to Clinton's profession of ignorance on CNN's "Larry King Live" last Thursday, Morris told Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" last night that he was stunned to hear his old boss make the claim.

"When I hear Bill Clinton saying that he didn't know that North Korea was building bombs in these underground caverns - in 1998, when he was president, the Washington Post published a report that that was the case," Morris said.

"Clinton read the Washington Post," he continued. "If you were the president of the United States and read in the Washington Post that your CIA thought that, would you pick up the phone and call them? Would you ask them?"

In fact, the Post report to which Morris referred went even further, revealing that top administration officials had been briefed on North Korean nuclear weapons activity.

"U.S. intelligence analysts believe about 15,000 North Koreans are at work on a vast, secret underground nuclear facility, a development administration officials say may represent a decision by North Korea to abandon a four-year-old agreement to freeze its nuclear weapons program," the Post reported on Aug. 18, 1998.

"Administration officials who have been briefed on the intelligence data, which includes imagery collected by spy satellites, describe a large-scale tunneling and digging operation in a mountainside about 25 miles northeast of Yongbyon, a former nuclear research center where North Korea is said to have produced enough plutonium for two nuclear weapons."

After citing the Post report, Morris told O'Reilly: "For [Clinton] to take the position he didn't know North Korea was cheating is absolutely disingenuous. Not only did he know, but while he knew, he was pressing Congress to give them food and fuel to honor his '94 agreement [with Pyongyang].

On Thursday the ex-president told Larry King: "We had a tough time with [North Korea], but we got them to end that program and they kept it ended until apparently today they started again. They would have a hundred weapons if we hadn't done that. ... It turns out they had this smaller laboratory program to develop a nuclear bomb with enriched uranium."

Here's another story proving He knew.
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200310221200.asp

And again, Clinton thought Saddam had WMDs. So that means HE lied by your reasoning.

[bloodrage bob]

clinton lied!

under oath!

then he got his lying ass IMPEACHED!!!

and disbarred! and fined!

quite the legacy he's got going, there.

[bloodrage bob]

science experiment: how long till the liberal hordes storm in, grunting & squealing, to defend their beloved bubba? over/under is.....oh.....2-and-a-half minutes.

[Fred Beloit]

bb, looks like Hard shut them down.

[demkiller]

I would like to state the facts; liberals and democrats are chickens and liars. Is that not obvious? You have been given a great mission America; wake up before it is too late! Don't let pelosi or howard dean destroy your country! If you appear weak, you will be conquered. You have many enemies who would like to see you destroyed! Even in your own country, many do not understand why they are free and would rather support your enemies. If you vote a democrat in for pres, you will lose! God bless the Republican party and the U.S.! God bless George Bush. To hell with dems and libs now; they're going there anyway! "Where there is liberty, there also is the spirit of God"!