But the reality is that while there are many different ethnic groups in Iran 97 percent of the population is Muslim.
Actually that isn't true. They are trained and are in use all over the world. You won't hear much about what they do because like all black ops, they are kept secret til well after the events are over.
Probably. Unless it was a failure, you are likely to have to wait for 30+ years (sometimes even longer) before anything will be revealed. There are exceptions, but they are rare.
What are you on about & who are you talking to? Which "US based Iranians"? Txtriathlete is the only "US based Iranian" on this thread. kami_kakashi and Iranian Monitor both live in Iran.
What about that Val guy, he's got plenty to say, the one with the bizzaro bearded ladyboy in his avatar, he's in the US or Canada or wherever.
I don't see how that is relevant. Did you see the part of my post where I said I didn't understand the need to invent strawment rather then to respond to posts? This is what I'm talking about. Have I mentioned either the US or British Army? I was comparing the US Marines to the Royal Marines, and in the first line of my post acknowledged that the Royal Marines received more training. Does no one read the posts they respond to? Let me be clear, since everyone seems to be mis-reading what I am saying: I am in no way impugning the Royal Marines, the British Army or the British people. They have been and continue to be better allies then we in the US could ask for. My only point was that the behavior of some of the 15 captured military personnel was troubling, and that firsthirt's point about it was valid. I have to date only seen one post(BelgianGuy's I think it was) that even attempted to give a reasonable argument in favor of it. I don't agree with his point, but at least he was trying something other then "the US military just likes to shoot people".
Yeah you were, you posted the same thing in every thread on the topic, then you log off and runaway, hence my hurried reponse, missed you by about a minute with that one.
Fred Thompson has some excellent points about the pirate Ahmadinejad on this issue: The Pirates of Tehran By Fred Thompson Posted in Foreign Affairs http://www.redstate.com/stories/foreign_affairs/the_pirates_of_tehran "... The problem, as I see it, is that Ahmadinejad seems to be the happiest. And why shouldn't he be? He has shown the world that his forces can kidnap British citizens, subject them to brutal psychological tactics to coerce phony confessions, finagle the release of a high-ranking Iranian terror coordinator in Iraq, utterly trash the Geneva conventions and suffer absolutely no consequences...." Mr. Thompson is right of course. Putting this pirate out of business seems a worthy effort for Bush; we should take the Brit hostage issue as starting point and start building up our Navy in the area. This terrorist Ahmadinejad needs to be dealt with by real men, not those that curtsy in his presence...
it's relevant because they weren't prisoners of war. They were not in a battle. They had no secrets they could give away as there was no secret about what they were doing (just where). Nor could they jeopardise others, or the the plans of others by cooperating. They would have known that being freed by military means was almost impossible, and long term incarceration was very possible. They had a choice of being a hero and defying, and spending several years in a jail eating bugs to stay alive, or having the chance to go home, knowing full well that nobody in the west would believe the confessions genuine, and that nobody in the middle east would have believed denials anyway. Despite all the protests about Britain "not having the balls to deal with it properly" etc, I've yet to hear a single suggestion about what Britain should have done differently, or those captured for that matter, and how those actions would have resulted in a better outcome than now.
GB handled this the best way possible. They got their people back, didn't escalate into a bigger fight, and clearly a message was sent that UK would not back down and admit something that wasn't true. My question is, what will happen if Iran pulls this stunt again? This is the second time that Iran has grabbed UK sailors in that area.
who knows? I think the crucial thing is from now on such maneouvres won't be carried out without serious military back-up. This didn't look to be an opportunist move by the Iranians. They clearly seemed prepared and knew they could take the hostages easily.