What We Can Learn From Britain About Iran (posted to reveal which side these writers are on)

N.Y. Times ^ | April 5, 2007 | Vali Nasr

[nuconvert]

What We Can Learn From Britain About Iran

By VALI NASR and RAY TAKEYH

April 5, 2007

THROUGH the capture of and subsequent announcement that it would release 15 British sailors and marines, the Islamic Republic of Iran sent its adversaries a pointed message: just as Iran will meet confrontation with confrontation, it will respond to what it perceives as flexibility with pragmatism. This message is worth heeding as the United States and Iran seem to be moving inexorably toward conflict.

The timing of the Britons’ capture was no accident. The incident followed the passage of a United Nations resolution censuring Iran for its nuclear infractions, the dispatch of American aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf and the American sanctioning of Iranian banks. Although the Bush administration has been busy proclaiming its increasingly confrontational Iran policy a success, Tehran’s unsubtle conduct in the Persian Gulf suggests otherwise.

Had the British followed the American example, once the sailors and marines were seized, they could have escalated the conflict by pursuing the matter more forcefully at the United Nations or sending additional naval vessels to the area. Instead, the British tempered their rhetoric and insisted that diplomacy was the only means of resolving the conflict. The Iranians received this as pragmatism on London’s part and responded in kind.

The United States, meanwhile, has pursued its policy of coercion for two months now, and one is hard-pressed to find evidence of success. Beyond even the symbolic move of apprehending the British sailors, Iran’s intransigent position on the nuclear issue remains unchanged. To underscore that point, Iran has scaled back cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and released a new currency note adorned with a nuclear emblem.

[nuconvert]

Vali Nasr should NOT be a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is pro-Iranian regime; a reformist at best.

[nuconvert]

pong

[MizSterious]

Well, if you really want to know what side people are on, just ask. My answer: I’m on the side of the West, and against anything that weakens us. This incident, in my opinion, weakened us further. Now Iran knows they can take hostages, get back jailed “envoys” and only have to face harsh rhetoric.

[nuconvert]

“Well, if you really want to know what side people are on, just ask.”

Vali Nasr has proven through his writings time and time again which side he’s on. Yet he’s still a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. That’s scary and wrong.

[avacado]

Why didn’t the authors of that article just save some space and say: “We are Bush haters!”

[JasonC]

It was all theater to "train" Europeans to kowtow over nuclear weapons. By showing they had no stomach for real confrontation, he demonstrated to them and to his own constituents at home that nukes will go ahead on schedule and the west will do nothing. You can't put sanctions on us now, we just let hostages go! Which you took for that exact reason, duh. They think we are utter fools.

Unfortunately, they are correct.

[SampleMan]

Yes. I will steal $20 from your wallet to show my strength and agree to give you back $10 to show my pragmatism. How grand.

What a thief needs is a good thrashing, not a pat on the head for being reasonable.

[THX 1138]

The United States, meanwhile, has pursued its policy of coercion for two months now, and one is hard-pressed to find evidence of success.

Another example of liberals butchering the language...

[grey_whiskers]

The United States, meanwhile, has pursued its policy of coercion for two months now, and one is hard-pressed to find evidence of success.

None of OUR sailors have been kidnapped and paraded in Iran.

(Jimmy Carter and the embassy notwithstanding.)

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

One conventional cruise missile into the center of Iran's only functioning oil refinery could f*** up their whole day.

If they want to go back to the 7th century, let's send them there.

Cheers!