Not wearing a chadora, the one style for all Iranian women's clothing.
Posted on 04/04/2007 9:58:35 AM PDT by IrishMike
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Wednesday freed the 15 detained British sailors and marines in what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an Easter gift to the British people. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he bore "no ill will" toward the Iranian people. Iranian state television said the 14 men and one woman, who were seized while on patrol in the northern Persian gulf on March 23, would leave Iran on Thursday. An Iranian official in London said they would be handed over to British diplomats in Tehran.
Ahmadinejad's surprise announcement came at a news conference shortly after he pinned a medal on the chest of the Iranian coast guard commander who intercepted the sailors and marines.
"I'm glad that our 15 service personnel have been released and I know their release will come as a relief not just to them but to their families," Blair said outside his No. 10 Downing St. office. "Throughout, we have taken a measured approach, firm but calm, not negotiating but not confronting, either."
Blair added, "To the Iranian people I would simply say this: We bear you no ill will."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
No, you are reading things into my comments that are not implied by them or presupposed by them (that’s understandable in light of many things expressed about France on this site, but I am far from one of the haters). If France wants to cooperate now, I welcome it... I simply don’t trust it (maybe things will be different if/when Sarkozy wins, we’ll see). I’m not one of the “haters” of all things French on this site, I merely detest (most of the time) their government and foreign policy. I wish they were a consistent ally and not such a fickle, too often antagonistic ally. But when they come through with some decent behavior I am happy to applaud it.... I only wish it were more frequent and consistent.
Actually the Brits, along with the Aussies and Canadians are our strongest allies along with some newcomers like Poland and Romania.
This incident doesn’t prove anything regarding being and ally. All it proves is that the Labour Party are weak and appeasers. Our Dems (as Carter did) are just as bad and have a worse record.
I’m seriously hoping, for the UK, that they unleash an air attack (along with the US) on the nuke sites now (perfect opening)and crush the Rev.Guards, Al Quds etc of the military. If they don’t it’s just another chapter in the fall of the West.
I’ve just been watching this on the news and it was a complete farce. They had some daft bint and her husband kissing ahmedinnerjackets ass.
When the hostages did their little walk out to meet the president, one of them was talking to an ITV news reporter while the others were talking to the president, and he was grabbed.
These bastard iranians have again tonight put them on tv, focusing again on the women (once again with here head gear on).
He can take his gift and shove it.
Our gift to him will hopefully be a mass bombing campaign.
But FRiends, I feel some of you are being a bit harsh on us Brits, the debate about whether the soldiers should have given themselves up could go on forever, as could the conduct of our government.
I don’t exactly know what the government has done wrong, it hasn’t really given them anything, and it has stuck to its guns with regards our innocence of any wrongdoing.
To start questioning our commitment while our soldiers are fighting and dying alongside our American brothers is simply a disgrace. Britain has been one of only a couple of nations that has stood by you, Tony Blair has sacrificed himself politically for this fight and I have absolutely no doubt that we will support the inevitable decision to attack Iran over it’s nuclear weapons programme.
You’re right, UK; a lot of people here are making premature judgments about Britain’s response to this.
They were not MASSIVELY outgunned at Trafalgar. It was a 1:1 battle, which the British won because they had the more experienced fleet.
Nor were they MASSIVELY outgunned in the Battle of Britain. In fighter power, which is what counted, they were outnumbered about 1.5 to 1, which isn’t nice odds, but it’s not massive either.
Now that they have humiliated the British Lion, pulling it's last tooth, guess which English Speaking Country, aka The Great Satan, is next?
Better be careful though, they might get their fingers, or other body parts, burned.
“Its like when France decided in one day to surrender to the Germans after a month of hard fighting.
Call it crossing the line from ally to merely a neutral.”
An ally?
No. France was not an ally of the United States in 1940.
Why?
Because the AMERICANS chose to be neutral.
The AMERICANS chose to not get involved when Hitler rearmed the Rhineland, occupied Czechoslovakia, and invaded Poland.
The BRITISH and the CANADIANS were allies of the French, but the AMERICANS were not allies of France, and they were not enemies of Hitler either. They were neutral. They were even neutral when Hitler devastated London.
Only after the Japanese attacked America and Hitler declared war on the United States did the United States then, and only then, become part of the Western Alliance. Before that, the United States was as useless as Brazil in defending the world from either Naziism OR Communism.
The “Western Alliance” was Britain and France. France fell, Britain was pummelled, America didn’t do anything.
Only when the Axis touched America proper did the Americans do anything, for their own reasons. They BECAME allies because they were attacked. Before they were attacked, they were not enemies of Hitler. France and Britain stood up to Hitler. France lost. Britain was pummelled. But they fought.
America let Europe go to Hell, and was never going to intervene at all, but for the fact that Hitler and Tojo attacked the US.
America crossed the line from being a mere neutral to being a useful part of the Western Alliance after Pearl Harbor. Before that, America was not a participant in the war against Hitler, and didn’t care less.
My nephew is on a sub in the Persian Gulf. Trust me, Iran was thisclose to some major smack down. Irregardless of how this is played in the press.......
Not wearing a chadora, the one style for all Iranian women's clothing.
They would be wrong.
I sure the he** hope so! :)
HOW MUCH DID THIS COST?
What did they think was going to be the result of 911?
If what you say is true, they're walking a fine line. Islamofascists have been very vocal about vowing to wipe us from the planet. If they don't strike, they look not only WEAK but like 911 was a SUCKER PUNCH on an unprepared sleeping giant. The world view may be they're unable to strike when our back is UP and we're lookin' 'em dead in the eye. Which maybe is a fact!
I thought they wanted the U.S. to release some Iranians.
They aren't, even the terrorist loving BBC says (in the link from post 24 )
"They are expected to be handed to the British embassy in Tehran on Thursday morning before flying home.
It's already Thursday, about 2:30 AM there now, but not yet morning. "Morning" doesn't end until noon, 4:30 EDT. We shall see.
No reason at all they could not have been handed over to the British Embassy right after the "photo op".
I won't be surprised to see some "snag" come up.
I doubt she was willing to put on the chadora they offered her.
All true, the American public and leadership had very little interest in getting involved in Europe or the world before Pearl Harbor. Some of it was a renewed isolationism growing after WWI, but it is interesting to look at the large segments of the public that had come to support intervention in WWI and then ended up deeply disillusioned in what happened with our “allies” in the Versailles treaty, etc. Respect for France and Britain fell sharply here, for a variety of reasons, and then there was the nonsense of the “Kellogg-Briand” Pact in 1928, making a lot of naive people think that war could simply be renounced and forgotten about.
One can certainly blame Americans in the 1920s and 1930s for retreating from world affairs, but there are a lot of things the leadership of France and Britain did (or failed to do) to keep the USA as an ally and partner in that period. Sure, part of it was that the US Senate declined to ratify the League of Nations treaty, but the moment WWI was ended both France and Britain treated the USA increasingly as unwanted interlopers — you can blame Americans for some things in that period, but there was little real partnership or friendship or effort at alliance from Europe either — they were happy to have American loans and troops when convenient, and then happy to sneer at and condescend to Americans who decided they no longer had any use for Europe.
Let’s all hope no more of that pattern is repeated now.....
I don't recall seeing any Vietnam POWs giving the "Hawaiian Good Luck Sign", but the crew of the USS Pueblo did when exhibited by the North Koreans. Then "Time" ratted them out and they were given thorough beatings.
This isn’t trafalgar or the B.O.B. The scenarios are completely different.
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