How Long Will Iran Hold the British Sailors?

[Felix_Nietzsche]

How long will Iran hold the British sailors?
When Iran over-ran the American embassy in the 1970s, they held them for 444 days. My guess Iran will ONLY respond to military threats and military action. Tony Blair is believer of diplomacy with these loons so I think it will be a long time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Hostage_Crisis

[theweatherman]

How about 'as long as is politically convenient'?

As this is pretty much what every nation on the planet does with every decision they make.

PS. "Iran" didnt take over the American Embassy, that would be a defacto act of war. It was radical elements within Iran, albeit acting in some sort of grace from the government, that took control of the Embassy.

[casey_brick]

[ QUOTE ]
How about 'as long as is politically convenient'?


[/ QUOTE ] When was it politically convenient for them to take the Sailors into custody?

[MuresanForMVP]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How about 'as long as is politically convenient'?


[/ QUOTE ] When was it politically convenient for them to take the Sailors into custody?

[/ QUOTE ]

Casey-Were you recently promoted to GySgt.? If so, congrats on the promotion

[TimWillTell]

It seems to me that it will depend on the specific Iranian laws that apply to this situation.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

[ QUOTE ]
When was it politically convenient for them to take the Sailors into custody?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yep....this is a heaven sent causi belli excuse to bomb Iran nuclear facilities. They gave us this opportunity on a silver platter. Too bad, Tony Blair is being such a wimp.

[iron81]

The thing is, the British priority right now isn't settling our score with Iran, its with getting their sailors back. That's probably the reason they didn't launch a strike when they were first captured: they were more likely to die in a rescue than sitting in an Iranian prison. There will be plenty of time to bomb Iran after they come home.

[latefordinner]

when will you bloodthirsty hawks realize that even the most warmongering in the US and UK governments understand that bombing Iran would be a really really really bad idea?

The "hostage charade" will probably go on for another week or so until both sides figure out how they can get out of it while saving face and claiming victory.

[canis582]

Bomb Iran
?????
Profit

[John Kilduff]

[ QUOTE ]
when will you bloodthirsty hawks realize that even the most warmongering in the US and UK governments understand that bombing Iran would be a really really really bad idea?

The "hostage charade" will probably go on for another week or so until both sides figure out how they can get out of it while saving face and claiming victory.

[/ QUOTE ]

In my opinion the Iranians should not be allowed to save face in this matter as they clearly engaged in a hostile and illegal act. Many would call it an act of war and technically they would probably be right. I'm not suggesting that Iran should be bombed but they should be made to understand that they cannot just take hostages like that and get away with it with no adverse repercussions.

Think of the future: at some point you have to show your adversary that they just can't keep stealing your blinds and being over-aggressive with impunity - and especially that they can't keep pulling illegal angle-shots. Iran has been doing those things with supplying shaped explosives to fighters in Iraq, which have killed many Americans, and has had Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisors inside Iraq, and has now illegally taken the British sailor hostages who were on peaceful U.N.-mandated anti-smuggling patrol duty in non-Iranian waters.

Every time the mullahs' aggressions and provocations are appeased, they become emboldened. Letting them off the hook would be a bad metagame strategy this time (in my opinion). Unfortunately, I am unclear on what a good response would be, but allowing these guys to get away with things like this is just wrong, and bad for future hands, too.

That would be like letting an adversary get away with a very aggressive and illegal move in a high stakes poker game when you know that this opponent will do such things even more in the future if they succeed this time. Just because the opponent lies about it to the Floor, does not mean the other players or the principal victim should let that opponent get away with it in the interest of saving face and maintaining (relative) harmony. Iran needs: 1) to not be allowed to get away with this, and 2) to feel significant adverse repercussions in order to discourage rather than encourage future illegal acts of aggression. Again I don't know what the proper specific response should be, but in my opinion it should be in keeping with the above principles.