The Telegraph reports that British ministers are planning to offer Iran a "face-saving" deal for the safe return of the kidnapped British sailors.
Ministers are preparing a compromise deal to allow Iran to save face and release its 15 British military captives by promising that the Royal Navy will never knowingly enter Iranian waters without permission.
I can not believe that this can be considered acceptable by Britain? The idea that Britain must humiliate itself - having already been humiliated by Iran - simply in order to allow a bunch of raving, apocalypse loving scum to save face is beyond reason. Who cares if Iran are humiliated - does anyone seriously believe they worry about us in the same way?
The one promise we should make Iran is that if the British sailors are not released within 24 hours then the Royal Navy will be entering Iranian waters in force.
4 comments:
I totally agree with your last sentence.
I can only hope that the reason we have not reacted thus, is that US/UK/ISR military plans against Iran are already at an advanced stage, and that it is thought best to stick to the plans.
I think the reason we haven't reacted is that this government's defence plans are in such disarray that we are simply incapapble of such action. The fact is that our navy is bereft of air cover - and a navy without air cover is a very vulnerable navy. The MoD decision to retire the Sea Harrier and their carriers without a suitable replacement being in place is a scandalous decision which, in any other era, would have been treated with derision and disbelief by a properly critical media.
Stan
You might find my
blog post
and links therefrom associated links of interest. We've been this way before when Denis Healey was Secretary of Defence from 1964-1970: land-based strike aircraft TSR-2 and carrier replacement CVA-01 both cancelled. Had he had his way, the Harrier would have been cancelled, too. The only way the Navy got the carriers they did was to call them "through deck cruisers". No Harriers - defeat in the Falklands. Plus ça change, plus de la mème chose. Mind you, the Tories were no better under Thatcher - John Nott planned to sell the carrier Invincible off in 1980.
Thanks for the link, jabberwock - it's interesting reading. I'm old enough to remember the TSR2 cancellation - one of the most short sighted government decisions ever taken. The TSR2 was years ahead of it's time and superior in every aspect to it's replacement - the F111 - and even the replacements replacement - the B1.
The cancellation not only killed off a fine aeroplane, but effectively ended our ability to make our own aeroplanes any more. After that it was buy American or joint ventures with dodgy European "colleagues".
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