Well, I just hope that those who said Israel's response to its soldiers kidnap by Hizbullah was "not proportional" think of it in a different light now.
Iran is simply wiping the floor with Britain now. It's a f-ing joke and everybody sees it.
I doubt Blair would have the balls to do anything extreme in the very PC climate that's going on in Britain now.
People around the West have just lost all survival instincts and will for self-preservation. It's OK as long as Western country battle each other as this crap attitude is common to both sides, so it just restrains.
But when it comes to Muslim fundies like the one giving the Brits a hard time now, it's an entirely different ball game. You have to be tough. And Britain is obviously not.
What do you think will exactly happen if Britain negotiates these men out of there? Do you think it will discourage more of this stuff in the future? I can't possibly see how, apart from ignorant, pathetic, impotent politics, this situation could have materialized.
Edit: I'm just at awe at this paragraph (from the Independent article quoted here, by Gwynne Dyer):
Does that mean that one of his American boarding teams would have opened fire if it had been them in the two inflatable boats that were surrounded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast patrol boats off the coast of Iraq last Friday? "Agreed. Yes."
Just as well that it was a British boarding team, then. The 15 British sailors and marines who were captured and taken to Tehran for "questioning" last week are undoubtedly having an unpleasant time, but they are alive, and Britain is only involved in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. If it had been one of Horner's boarding teams, they would all be dead, and the United States and Iran would now be at war.
Does she understand that these are MILITARY PERSONNEL in a conflict, that just surrendered and let be taken away?
I will bet against anyone that:
1. The boarding teams were not so far from their main vessels (the frigates)
2. The frigates KNEW the Iranian were coming - they have radars good for hundreds of miles, and there are means of communication between the boarding teams and the vessels
3. Both the US and Britain could have called for air support, to stop the Iranian ships
And from what appears in the media now, the Brits were just taken, without any resistance from either them or their frigates and navy. It's lame.