Publication withheld until after the tars were back home.
If it had been a soccer game (OK, futball), it would have been a blowout. But it was much worse than that. It was reality. Real life. And the UK has been humiliated so much by a psychopath that it has probably lost forever the last shred of its formerly fearless reputation. Lets tally up some of the side-effects of the Brits whimpering behavior the past two weeks.Royal Navy - now proven to be gutless, incompetent and foolish. The skipper of the HMS Pinafore - sorry, Cornwall demonstrated he is not even responsible enough toward his crew as to captain a tugboat, let alone an ocean-going vessel. And certainly not a warship. Would definitely not want to see him at the helm of a London taxi or a Jubilee line train. As for the crew? No stalwarts there.
PM Tony Blair - Utterly, utterly clueless. Said he did not, could not, would not negotiate, and then sent his guy to Tehran to "talk". Hmmm. "If it sounds like, looks like and smells like a duck, et al." Sadly, if he possesses the slightest degree of integrity, the thing for Blair to do now is visit the queen within a few days and submit his resignation.
Brits in general - Chamberlainish - 70%, it seems, and Churchillish - 30%. Admittedly unscientific estimates, possibly, but loosely based on observed numbers of pro/con comments in several UK on-line media outlets. Sad state of affairs. But what can one expect of a nation where one who breaks into another's home has superior safety and security rights over the homeowner citizen.
The EU - Morally, ethically and spiritually bankrupt and clueless. Chamberlainish - 85% versus Churchillish - 15%, maybe. In a situation where the EU could have won back some respect, they stalled, stumbled, fumbled and blew it. Written off by the rest of the world as nothing more than a flock of hens in a weakly defended chicken coop. The foxes of the world have taken note, and the EU now lives on borrowed time.
The UN - Nada. Even less relevant than the EU - if that's possible. They just huff, puff, whine and dine. And then do it all over again. But that won't matter a whit because most of the world expects this of them.
Nothing good will come from any of this - unless and until other responsible citizens speak up and force changes. Little hope this will occur, however.
Sad and discouraging for freedom, everywhere.
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3 comments:
I would agree with your interpretation of "Chamberlainish - 70%, it seems, and Churchillish - 30%" if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Nation of Iran were as similar to Nazi Germany as The Bush administration paints it to be.
Given that it is a far more dangerous kettle of Piranhas, yanking the poor sailors out of there ASAP might not have been a bad idea.
What makes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scary is not that he and his nation are evil; but that they are honest they believe their crap. The Nazi's knowingly lied to the people of Germany. Ahmadinejad and his cronies actually believe the crap they spout.
The whole thing was a publicity stunt for Iran to prove it had control of its territory, a warning to the coalition to stay away from the sovereignty of the Islamic people.
So the sabre rattling is over. Consider the Persian Gulf as a rather large tea pot and I think you will have the best metaphor for this whole fiasco.
That said, If Blair had not talked would this have given Ahmadinejad the justification in front of his people to execute the sailors, and Britain the justification to go to war with Iran? Who knows?
hey I think you just edited your posting while I was posting my reply that's not fair.. (-:
bill, I agree with you somewhat that Ahmadinejad believes "some" of his crap, though I doubt he believes "all".
I've seen later analysis that says Brit public opinion vis-a-vis going to war with Iran over the issue changed dramatically the last few days of the incident - going from somewhat similar figures I've quoted to an almost 90% in favor of 'striking back". If that pov is correct, maybe the real John Bull lies closer to the surface politic than listening to the BBC would suggest.
As to re-editing on the fly - well you know how sneaky and controlling we Yanks can be - but it didn't happen, this time.
Still like your global warming cartoon!
Cheers
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