More on the captured Brits

London Telegraph

Britain has unleashed a barrage of explanations in an attempt to defuse the PR disaster they've suffered, including explanations by the Commander of the landing party. It won't do much good--after hearing them it's still obvious Iran came out ahead. They perpetrated an act of war, forced the Brit troops to basically beg for their lives after giving up information and set precedent for future seizures and hostilities in Iraq.

The professional speculation is rampant and Right Truth has a nice summary of some very cogent analysis in that department, including this snippet:

In this way, the Iranians have sent two signals.

The first was that while the United States is concentrating its forces in Baghdad and Anbar province, Iran remains perfectly capable of whipping up a crisis in the relatively quiet south -- where U.S. troops are not present and where the British, who already have established a timeline for withdrawal, might not have sufficient force to contain a crisis. If the United States had to inject forces into the south at this point, they would have to come from other regions of Iraq or from the already strained reserve forces in the United States. The Iranians are indicating that they can create some serious political and military problems for the United States if Washington becomes aggressive.

One thing that still troubles me is the lack of an explanation about why some of them displayed ear-to-ear grins during their appearances on Death To America TV. The commander stated he ordered them not to screw it up (their chance at leaving) so perhaps they laid it on thick and heavy. It worked, but the guy in the picture above also got released and he appeared to be avoiding a grin with some resolve. Their facial expressions will probably be the most remembered part of this event.

Yeah, tough words from a keyboard cowboy and I might have been smiling, too, so take it for all it's worth. It's just disappointing when we hope for "let's roll" in times of strife and end up getting the exact opposite.

MORE 4/7/07

This 2005 article from RCP is worth a re-read. Several of the sailors commented that Britain is not at war with Iran but all indications suggest Iran has been at war with the west since 1979. Yet, no matter what they do we just won't attack. Check out what Fred thinks about all this.