At least Nero fiddled
Some act, some talk. Some do both. In the West, we live in the Era of the Strongly Worded Communiqué, as we have previously noted.
Not so Iran. They kidnap 15 British troops and then denounce Britain for its “blatant aggression“, and produce instant “confessions” from their captives. Then (via WaPo), “Iran summoned the British charge d’affaires to the Foreign Ministry on Friday and demanded an immediate explanation.” These guys in Iran have some brass, do they not?
Meanwhile, the UK’s reaction, via CNN:
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Friday her office was making clear it expected the personnel to be released immediately, along with “a full explanation of what happened.”…Nick Lambert, commodore of the ship, said his marines were inside Iraqi territorial waters when they were arrested. There was no fighting and no use of weapons, he told a BBC pool reporter on the ship. “It was entirely peaceful.”
We’re all for the “speak softly and carry a big stick” approach, but when the guy with the stick is calling the kidnapping of his men “entirely peaceful”, there is no stick whatsoever in evidence. Or, to put it another way, Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned, but fiddling is actually a higher level of human activity than the West’s diplomats requesting full explanations and warriors calling the capture of their soldiers peaceful.
UPDATE
Another dispatch from the Era of the Strongly Worded Communiqué:
The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Saturday to impose new sanctions against Iran…The moderately tougher sanctions include banning Iranian arms exports, and freezing the assets of 28 people…The new resolution calls for voluntary restrictions on travel by the individuals subject to sanctions…The ban on exports is among the harshest measures, but many of Iran’s arms sales may not be affected because they are illicitly sent to militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Iraq.
“Voluntary restrictions on travel.” “Freezing the assets of 28 people.” Banning the exports of arms that are already exported clandestinely. No doubt Iran is quaking in its boots.