There is just something deeply disturbing about people who are so willingly ignorant of proximate causes. Thinking that “if only we understood them and communicated our views better, everybody would get along” is, in addition to being blatantly a blame-America-first view, a prime example of the racist world view that plagues the modern left. Specifically, that “those brown people” (they like to lump persians, kurds, and arabs as an indistinguishable mass) are just too wild and stupid to obtain a democracy, and a million arab lives are not worth the life of one American soldier.

It’s just amazing that 9/11 was able to cause such a complete reversal of the previous left-interventionist versus right-isolationist positions.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.

The people of Iran (especially the Persians) are highly nationalistic, but they also remember the 1980 -1988 war with Iraq and the bloodshed it brought them. They question the wisdom of the nuclear weapons program that is isolating them internationally and draining their resources. They are worried about the coalition navies plying the “Persian Gulf”. In spite of all their worries and fears, if attacked, they will rally to defend their country. The only hope for survival of the current regime, is to provoke a military response from a major western power.

Why did they choose the UK? Rules of Engagement. The tone of operations in Iraq has been different with each coalition partner. In and around Basra where the British forces have operated, they had a lighter hold of the reins. Where the Americans would shoot to kill, the Brits try to resolve the differences peacefully. With the Shiites in Basra, it worked. With Iranian Revolutionary Guards, it facilitated their hostage taking plans. Another reason why the UK forces were grabbed - They were there.

The Royal Navy and the US Navy are suffering from global micromanagement. The days are gone when the Captain of a warship was the Master and Commander - the most powerful ruler on the planet. Today’s Admirals are mere Officers of the Deck. Realtime decisions are often made in Whitehall and Arlington.

Not really all that surprising if you lived here. The whole “Stiff upper lip” thing isn’t just a stereotype. People have, for years, responded to terrorism with a “getting on with it” attitude and this falls into the same category. As an example, the day after the 7/7 bombings most conversation was about how the tubes were going to be cocked up, rather than worrying about whether we were all going to be blown up. That and the standard joke : “The French did it because we won the Olympics” (Oh how I wish the French had won the Olympics…)

In contrast most people in the UK have been agast at the US flag-waving attitude that has been prevalent for the last few years.

It is difficult to describe this effect. We like our patriotism stoical and quiet usually. Just like we like our religion. Don’t mistake that for cowardice, or being war-shy. Most people that I spoke to that were anti-Iraq war took a “But this is just bloody stupid” line rather than a “Make love not war” one.

That having been said, the UK is in no state, militarily, to go invading Iran, so what would be the point in pretending that we were?

I think the official response has been right on target. I was more concerned with the lack of response by the British people - “curious” as you said but symptomatic of a larger problem I outline in the post.

Public attitudes aside, I don’t think the Brits have played this wrong so far. I think the Iranians have overreached here and there is an opportunity to make them pay short of war. I believe in this case that time is on our side and Iran’s bellicosity since they took these hostages will play to our favor.

There is still plenty of time and there will still be cause to kick the crap out of them if the Brits are not released - no need for that yet imo.

The lack of reaction by the British public is curious. There seemed to be a little more outrage when they were shown on TV, but not the level that I would expect.

Greg, you slay me. You absolutely kill me.

Facilitating the killing of Americans by assisting radical Shias with getting weapons and IED’s is not exactly the same thing as sight seeing or visiting one of the Shia shrines there.

Mohammed Atta was in the US legally. So were most of the 9/11 hijackers. By your reasoning, even if we caught them we had no business holding them.

Keep trying…