I wonder why the HMS Cornwall didn't take any action in the first place, couldn't they have prevented this whole thing? Why did they just sit there & watch there comrades get abducted?

This worked in Iran's favor brilliantly. The west breathes a sigh of relief, Azmenijad looks like a "good guy" because he showed willingness to negotiate, and because they (likely) treated the detainees well. It has the effect of (1) buying time and (2) dividing western resolve against the more pressing issue - nuclear weapons development.

For one, I am not fooled for a second by this ruse. While western grandstanding politicians breathe sighs of relief and pat themselves on the back, Iran's centrifuges are still going full-bore. They mean to have a nuclear weapon and they'll obviously stop at nothing to get one. This distraction only helps them.

If this is anything like what went down in the 80's, there's a few containers of various weaponry on it's way to Tehran, FOB [10 Downing st|1600 Pennsylvnia]

where is Ollie N these days?? anybody has a fix on him?

Yes I get it.

Iran can do no wrong, our President can do no right. Anything Iran does is a brilliant move. Anything George W. Bush does is a blunder.

He did nothing here...he was obviously outsmarted. Had we launched missles or attacked, we would have been falling into an obvious trap. Had we used diplomacy, we would have been playing into their master plan of stalling us. See, WE ARE ALWAYS THE BAD GUY....at least until a Democrat is elected president, then we can do no wrong. :rolleyes:

This is like the Global Warming debate, where one side has effectively staked out the position that any possible outcome proves them right.

Maggie would have invaded.

Taught them a lesson like Galtieri.

It is bad enough when they say it, your repeating it just aint right. :D

I think that's why they played the religion card.

I think when all the facts come out, the US probably released the Iranians we took, and that played a role in the release of the Brits.

AQ1

I wonder if Mr. Bush not was rather disappointed by their release. Their capture would make yet an excellent point in an agenda to invade. Not that I presume to know if he wants to invade - but if he does it would..

Hey, quoting my own post!

But, one of today's AP articles made me do it.

See how reasonable and pragmatic Iran is these days!

"Sailors' Release Proof of a More Pragmatic Iran"

You "think" "probably".
I think that Ahmadinejad probably realized the world reaction wasn't quite what he expected after trying to make the most of his keystone kop navy's blunder.

There are some clues leaking out.

Captors Release Kidnapped Iranian Diplomat in Baghdad

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: April 4, 2007

BAGHDAD, April 3 — An Iranian diplomat kidnapped by armed men wearing uniforms of the Iraqi security forces was freed here on Tuesday, Iraq’s foreign minister said, adding that he continued to work to free five Iranians held separately by American military forces and was optimistic that they would be released soon.

Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said in an interview that the freeing of the diplomat was unrelated to the negotiations over the 15 British sailors and marines seized by Iran, accused of trespassing into its waters.

“People are trying to link this to the British sailors’ case,” Mr. Zebari said. “Really, it has no connection whatsoever.”

“Even for the other Iranian detainees, we’ve been repeatedly asking the MNFI to release them,” he added, referring to the Multinational Forces in Iraq. “We have a sense they are going to be released; we have some good pledges that they will be released after the investigation is finished.”

Other Iraqi politicians thought the timing of the diplomat’s release was difficult to separate entirely from the negotiations over the British sailors and marines. “It’s a curious coincidence,” said Ahmad Chalabi, the Shiite politician who has ties to Iran and is in charge of the government’s de-Baathification commission.

The released Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at Iran’s mission in Baghdad, walked into the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad this morning, Mr. Zebari said, adding that Mr. Sharafi remained uncertain who had kidnapped him.

Mr. Sharafi was seized more than eight weeks ago as he emerged from a bank in the middle-class, predominantly Shiite Karada neighborhood. At the time, the Iraqi police managed to stop one of the cars in the convoy that had whisked the diplomat away.

The four men inside were taken to the police station. They said they worked for an Iraqi security service, but when pressed, the security services denied that the men worked for them in any official capacity, Mr. Zebari said.

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Plenty of people were righteously indignant over North Vietnam attacking US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin 40+years ago, too. But the truth eventually comes out.

Since A follows B, one can always make the argument of causality, even if none exists. It's interesting to see the America-always-wrong folks already making that argument, even before B has occurred.

But if you're right, and the US government did do a swap, that is shameful.