Tehran's Hostages - Editorial
Fifteen British sailors and marines were kidnapped Friday in Iraqi territorial waters by the naval forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It was a premeditated act, carried out only hours before Britain voted to stiffen sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program in a unanimous UN Security Council resolution.
Britain and the U.S. can still respond today with the confidence that they maintain military superiority. That confidence will vanish the minute Iran achieves its goal of becoming a nuclear power.
(Wall Street Journal)
UPDATES:
Stop Appeasing Those Who Kidnapped British Servicemen - Editorial
It is depressing that the Western response has been so feeble.
Even the Shia-dominated Iraqi government has called on Iran to release the men - a far bolder call than anything coming from London or Washington.
(Times-UK)
Hostage Gambit - Amir Taheri
Western apologists for the Khomeinist regime have already started blaming the U.S. for having made the mullahs nervous. The argument of the apologists is: Don't do anything that makes the mullahs unhappy, or else they will do more mischief.
The truth, however, is that making the mullahs nervous may be the only way of persuading them to end their defiance of the UN and stop trying to export Khomeinism to neighboring countries.
(New York Post)
British Sailor Captives Paraded on TV -Thomas Harding, G. Jones and S. Payne
The release by Al-Alam television in Iran of film of Faye Turney, the captive Royal Navy rating, wearing a black Muslim headscarf, caused outrage Wednesday after she appeared to be speaking under duress...
(Telegraph-UK)
U.S. Opens Naval Exercise in Persian Gulf - Michael R. Gordon
In a calculated show of force, the U.S. Navy began a major exercise in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday...
The exercise was clearly intended to send a signal that even with its forces stretched thin by the Iraq war, the U.S. still has the military means to project power in the region.
(New York Times)
Iran and America: Capture Kharg Island? - James A. Lyons Jr.
In November 1979, when the U.S. embassy was sacked and our diplomats were taken hostage, I recommended to the then-acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that our only good option was to capture Kharg Island, Iran's principal oil export depot. If we did this, we could negotiate from a position of strength for the immediate return of our embassy and our diplomats. Unfortunately, the Carter administration rejected any offensive operations as a means of responding to this blatant act of war against the United States. We were humiliated and seemed to the world to lack the courage to defend our honor.
There is no time to waste. Immediate diplomatic and military pressure must be brought to bear to obtain the immediate release of the British sailors and marines. The capture of Kharg Island could be viewed as part of a larger economic sanction that the UN Security Council has already endorsed. It is not an attack against the Iranian people.
The writer, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, is a former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the UN.
(Washington Times)
Fifteen British sailors and marines were kidnapped Friday in Iraqi territorial waters by the naval forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It was a premeditated act, carried out only hours before Britain voted to stiffen sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program in a unanimous UN Security Council resolution.
Britain and the U.S. can still respond today with the confidence that they maintain military superiority. That confidence will vanish the minute Iran achieves its goal of becoming a nuclear power.
(Wall Street Journal)
UPDATES:
Stop Appeasing Those Who Kidnapped British Servicemen - Editorial
It is depressing that the Western response has been so feeble.
Even the Shia-dominated Iraqi government has called on Iran to release the men - a far bolder call than anything coming from London or Washington.
(Times-UK)
Hostage Gambit - Amir Taheri
Western apologists for the Khomeinist regime have already started blaming the U.S. for having made the mullahs nervous. The argument of the apologists is: Don't do anything that makes the mullahs unhappy, or else they will do more mischief.
The truth, however, is that making the mullahs nervous may be the only way of persuading them to end their defiance of the UN and stop trying to export Khomeinism to neighboring countries.
(New York Post)
British Sailor Captives Paraded on TV -Thomas Harding, G. Jones and S. Payne
The release by Al-Alam television in Iran of film of Faye Turney, the captive Royal Navy rating, wearing a black Muslim headscarf, caused outrage Wednesday after she appeared to be speaking under duress...
(Telegraph-UK)
U.S. Opens Naval Exercise in Persian Gulf - Michael R. Gordon
In a calculated show of force, the U.S. Navy began a major exercise in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday...
The exercise was clearly intended to send a signal that even with its forces stretched thin by the Iraq war, the U.S. still has the military means to project power in the region.
(New York Times)
Iran and America: Capture Kharg Island? - James A. Lyons Jr.
In November 1979, when the U.S. embassy was sacked and our diplomats were taken hostage, I recommended to the then-acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that our only good option was to capture Kharg Island, Iran's principal oil export depot. If we did this, we could negotiate from a position of strength for the immediate return of our embassy and our diplomats. Unfortunately, the Carter administration rejected any offensive operations as a means of responding to this blatant act of war against the United States. We were humiliated and seemed to the world to lack the courage to defend our honor.
There is no time to waste. Immediate diplomatic and military pressure must be brought to bear to obtain the immediate release of the British sailors and marines. The capture of Kharg Island could be viewed as part of a larger economic sanction that the UN Security Council has already endorsed. It is not an attack against the Iranian people.
The writer, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, is a former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the UN.
(Washington Times)
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