Posted on 06/02/2003 5:22:16 PM PDT by Bayou City
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:02:38 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON (CNN) --The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain is reporting that four U.S. soldiers and four civilians aboard two small civilian contractor boats were recovered Monday in the northern Persian Gulf after several hours in Iranian hands.
All eight of the passengers were found alive, but the two boat captains are being held by Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
The Iranians are just begging for it aren't they?
If you're a 90 lb weakling, you don't go up to the big group of Rugby players in the pub and tell them they're blocking your view to the telly. The weakling might be in the right, but it's just not a very clever thing to do is it? At this point in history, it would be simpler for us to merely take over Iran and rename it than to go through the diplomatic rigamarole to get these two Captains back. This is something the pointy heads in the Middle East haven't cottoned onto yet. This is our age. What the Iranians think about much of anything is irrelevent. They exist at this moment only at our whim. 'Making Nice' with our enemies (and Iran is 100% one of our enemies) costs us more effort than simply removing them from this mortal plane.
I suppose the Iranians can try to push their technical right. If they think it's worth obliteration- fine. It just doesn't seem a terribly smart move if they're planning on being around much longer. If Dubya wants to invade them over this- I wouldn't bat an eyelash.
The "waterway" where this occurred is a river that is not more than about a mile wide at its widest point. So to say these boats wandered/intentionally went into Iranian waters... could have meant the boats went 10 feet too far over the center line of the river.
Here's some info about the Shatt al Arab waterway:
Shatt al Arab , tidal river, 120 mi (193 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, flowing SE to the Persian Gulf, forming part of the Iraq-Iran border; the Karun is its chief tributary. The Shatt al Arab flowed through a broad, swampy delta, but the marshland in Iraq was drained in the early 1990s in order to increase government control over the Arab Shiites who lived there. The river supplies fresh water to S Iraq and Kuwait and is navigable for oceangoing vessels as far as Basra, Iraq's chief port.
Iraq and Iran have disputed navigation rights on the Shatt al Arab since 1935, when an international commission gave Iraq total control of the Shatt al Arab, leaving Iran with control only of the approaches to Abadan and Khorramshahr, its chief ports, and unable to develop new port facilities in the delta. To preclude Iraqi political pressure and interference with its oil and freight shipments on the Shatt al Arab, Iran built ports on the Persian Gulf to handle foreign trade. Iran and Iraq negotiated territorial agreements over the Shatt al Arab waterway in 1975, but by the end of the decade skirmishes in the area became prevalent. Full-scale war between the two countries broke out in Sept., 1980, leading to eight years of attacks on coastal areas (see Iran-Iraq War). The Shatt al Arab remains a source of conflict, as limited water access and unresolved maritime boundaries in the region persist.
And here is a longer article on the waterway: Shatt al-'Arab waterway Iran/Iraq
They weren't just simply captured and released.
They were "taken at gunpoint and blindfolded". They were "interrogated hourly throughout the night".
Actually I meant Iranian 'soldiers' on the Rio Grande. Our border patrol/coast guard takes it more seriously when there is a military prescence near our territory. A bunch of illegal immigrants aren't nearly the cause for concern as a military half a world away doing their business next door to us. And you're right, there's no reason to get bent out of shape about it. Interogations are protocol for most military protecting their border.
Our military would do the same thing. It's security precautions. If they were tortured or humiliated, then it would be a different story.
They are just protecting their border in territorial waters like a nation state is supposed to do. Unlike what we do with our Southern border, since we are to wimpy to put troops down there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.