Hooman wrote :

[...]

Upon receiving their freedom, they were attired in civilized-looking, albeit Tehran-made, suits.

[...]

"Civilized-looking"? What exactly does that mean? Iranians wearing djellabas are not civilized or even "civilized-looking"? "Western-style" would have been a more accurate and less offensive expression.

Olrik

Quite clearly this was a setup by Iran, I was thinking this myself as I watched them eat their healthy meals--not subtle exactly. Very sad that the Americans made it such an easy setup-- not exactly difficult to make a contrast with naked human pyramids, attack dogs and forced mimicking of sexual acts.

I watched CBS tonight and was amazed how slanted the coverage was. Elizabeth Palmer did the story, and threw her 2 cents in to the effect that she couldn't see how Iran's actions could do anything but make them look "even more suspicious in the eyes of the west."(?????!!!)

I've haven't seen ANY teevee talking head speculate that the Brits may have actually been inside Iran's territorial waters, wether on purpose or by an honest mistake. So they released gps co-ordinates. Big deal. Didn't Colin Powell show the UN a bunch of photos of aluminum tubes and satelite images in early 2003? We know what that accomplished, but what did it actually prove?

On the other hand, it occurs to me that perhaps American Journalist Josh Wolf was released from prison today in part because of Iran. Tough-guy protestations not withstanding, the Bush administration was loath to allow keeping Wolf imprisoned to make them look like, well, the goons that they are.

they set up an astute gut test for Bush and Blair. The obvious problem for Iran was Bush apparently wished play intimidation games with the "cowboy" rhetorics and military build-up in Iraq. You could never know for sure whether (or not) Bush would really attack Iran. Very likely, Bush wanted nothing more but annoy Iran (or the opposition in the US). But standing "stoic" amidst provocations was a no-win perspective for Iran. So they "overreacted" to a hike of the British sailors, surprising Bush and Blair handily. Most importantly, it checked the real commitment of Blair and Bush - and a little surprise, how low their commitment for engagement was. Blair acted cautios; Bush was no more courageous. If you compare his pre-incident rhetorics against supposed Iran involvement in Iraq bombings with the emphatic sideline pose now, you may bet it was not a favourite situation for Bush. Nice poker from Iran.

This incident is a perfect example of how easy it is to defeat the Bush criminal organization. Being a criminal organization, the gang is entirely predictable. They will always look for a criminal opportunity, regardless of the situation.

The Iranians know this, and outsmarted the Bush gang, easily finessing the propaganda attempts at demonizing them. Even the "U.S." mainstream media couldn't put this Humpty Dumpty together again, though not for want of trying.

What will be amusing, though risky, from here on out, will be to watch how the Bush crime family becomes increasingly desperate as their criminal plans keep failing. At some juncture, critical mass will have been reached, and free-fall will ensue.

The key factor in all this is the military. At what point will the senior leadership have had enough of being suckered, scammed, played for chumps and used, and decide that enough is enough. All of the military academies, the Citadel, VMI, Texas A&M, OCS, and ROTC stress duty, honor, and country throughout their training. Surely there is some remnant of that training in the upper echelons, and eventually it will awaken from its dormancy.

The momentum of the planet is against the BCF, and it is building daily. We can help that momentum build by relentless, continuous pressure. Justice delayed is not justice denied. It's only a postponement.

they were attired in civilized-looking, albeit Tehran-made, suits.

Ouch! What a snarky little dig. Given that Persian culture (and civilization) long predates Britain's and America's, that's just plain rude. People might argue that because we have sitcoms and drive-thru, we're the paragons of civilization, but there's a big world out there, and lots of history and culture has to be ignored for us to be the cradle of civilization. And they didn't torture the British prisoners, now did they? That can, and likely will, be spun cynically, but if they'd played by our modified rules of "civilized" prisoner-taking (e.g. secret prisons, torture lite), those British marines might've been in a very bad way.

I applaud you. But nowhere do you actually get to what Iran has actually gained by this bumbling affair other than reaffirming what the 'street' already knows: white bwana man baaad!

If anything it points out a critical flaw in Iranian politics, that no one is fully in control and no one is fully in the know. Now we all know it's goat-rodeo over there.

But hey, Majd you keep trotting that old embassy-storming angry mob ethos. It's worked so far to keep Iran in the company of the rest of the modern world thusfar. Good luck with that. Wanker.

he meant civilian suits as opposed to orange jump suits, or possibly Gitmo-style birthday suits with sandbag on head.

I have to say that one (probably not ironic) implication of how the hostage "crisis" played Teheran is that now everyone is as cynical about their politics as American are about ours. This is an entire article about how seizing British sailors was a "brilliant" stroke of politics, without a scant questioning of the moral motives or consequences of doing so.

After Abu Ghraib and the many other sins of Bush administration 'Realpolitik,' America will be a long time restoring its reputation. But it's depressing to see other governments--and the journalists who cover them--revelling in the fun of engaging in such cynical behavior as well. I know we Americans have no right to ask that Iranians observe moral standards: but maybe in a truer demonstration of "Persian generosity," they could?

Brilliant maneuvering by the Iranians (whoever is in charge), indeed.

But the audience was not the Arab street, which is not going to change its division between Iran-hating Sunnis and Iran-worshipping Shia no matter what the Iranians do.

The audience was the U.S., which in the wake of this ploy will be much less susceptible to trumped-up excuses for an attack on Iran.

How they must be stomping their tiny feet and screaming themselves red-faced in the white house ....