Stevenson's other novel.
I have been following the news stories on Iran's kidnapping of some UK enlisted people
BBC NEWS | UK | UK sailors captured at gunpoint for their games of international brinksmanship
Iran holds British sailors as West set to tighten sanctions AFP.com | . How do I feel about this? Well I'm outraged. Wait, are the British on our side? I have check because I'm from Massachusetts and frankly I'm still bitter about the Quartering act. Having checked and assured myself that they are indeed 'on our side' (oddly more than I was able to determine for Massachusetts). I am concerned and cross. Logic (not credulity and military press conferences) would support that they were where claimed to be and were not in Iranian waters (Shatt al Arab) - Google Maps . They had GPS equipment they seem to have been part of a critical and well trained unit. They; however, were not--mixed between ordinary sailors and marines--a special operations unit. The allied navies have with some fortuitous timing mounted a large exercise in response to this
U.S. launches show of force in gulf - Focus on Iran - MSNBC.com. Its good, making the point when you want to make it. The ability to move up and start a second exercise is even more critical as it allows us to control the tempo of operations in the gulf for the time being. Especially if some of the considerations here were that special forces operations were already being carried out in the Gulf and this particular set of captured sailors simply represented a soft target of opportunity for the Iranians. As the Powell once said "you break it you bought it" so to the Iranians the message must be: 'we are here, with our glue pot. So back off'. I saw an article in the New York Times about a week ago on a State Department official named Robert Joseph leaving the administration
Sensing Shift in Bush Policy, Another Hawk Leaves - New York Times. The article mentioned his role in crafting portions of US maritime policy: the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and interdiction agreements, which he seems to have been architect of. I had written favorably on this just last month
[Flying Dutchman of Mass Destruction]. My inclination there was not to demonstrate any unity with the over-starched hard right. Rather with genuine nuclear nonproliferation and the role of maritime national security to back it up. People like Robert Joseph to often strike me as being so focused on their myths of Regime Change that they accept even welcome nuclear fait accompli if it might strengthen their case for war. The reality of the blackmail and grey mail that comes with nuclear weapons, or even a nuclear weapons program strongly urge that action and strong diplomacy be applied evenly and continually. Now we have Britain's difficulty, but it must be America's response. The ability to bring the necessary pressure to bear to resolve this is ours, and we must act. We must impress the responsible parties directly and the revolutionary guard has exposure in Iraq. Or we must convince others, more in charge, to rein them in. I wish understood how this works, but I don't need to as long as there are others who do. Regardless; the order of the day is not leaving those sailors and marines or even Tony Blair twisting in the wind on this
Britain fails to gain strong UN support in row with Iran..
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