These are sad days for Britain's history of greatness when the loudest in Britain seem to shrug over the hostage incident. By blaming America for getting the Persians all riled up, much of the British public seems to have granted those British military personnel honorary American citizenship for the purposes of doing nothing.
Yet all hope is not lost, it seems:
Britain was trying to "pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released," Blair told GMTV television.
"I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."
Pressed on what that might involve, Blair said: "Well, we will just have to see.
When people say that responding with military force just solidifies an enemy's position, what that means is that "ineffective military force" solidifies an enemy's position. Effective military force could defeat the enemy.
The Taliban and al Qaeda had their position solidified by our bombing of a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant and the cruise missile destruction of some empty tents in Afghanistan. But send in the bombers and special forces with lots of cash and suddenly the Taliban and al Qaeda are measuring drapes for their caves and hovels in Pakistan.
Years of dropping cement-filled bombs on Iraqi targets during no-fly zone patrols in the 1990s did nothing to rock Saddam's regime. But sending the Army and Marines to Baghdad left Saddam and his delightful spawn dead and unable to harm anybody again.
So if the Iranians do not relent, the proper focus of a forceful response should be the regime.
And consider that we are practicing engaging naval targets with two carriers in the region and a French carrier is also nearby:
The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.
We aren't practicing strikes on Iran perhaps because we have more than enough land-based air power (plus sea-based missiles) to hit Iran. Our naval forces could be tasked to shield the Gulf shipping lanes to blunt an Iranian counter-attack aimed at the oil lifelines of the world. Perhaps the French would sign on to this more defensive task in order to free our forces for offensive missions over Iran.
Last summer, I thought that the British had agreed with us to take down the Iranian regime. I still think that we will attempt this while Prime Minister Blair still holds office.
Remember, it's the regime, stupid. Whether the problem is terrorism, nukes, aggression in Iraq and Lebanon, seizing hostages, or simple oppression at home, the answer is to change the regime and not address the symptoms of that regime in isolation.
Secretary Gates has got it:
"We should have no illusions about the nature of this regime or about their designs for their nuclear program, their intentions for Iraq or their ambitions in the Gulf region," Gates said at a speech to the American-Turkish Council in Washington.
And remember, too, our president doesn't like small ball. Perhaps it will be a Tehran spring after all.
We'll just have to see.
