Readying for Paper Cuts

The British don't appear to have a military resolution to securing the release of the 15 sailors and Royal Marines being held by Iran, so they're going to the UN to secure a dreaded resolution.

The Iranians are adamant that the British must admit that they were in Iranian waters, despite having no proof other than the coerced statements made by the sailors and Marines under duress, before the 15 could be released.

Iran farts in the UN's general direction. They couldn't care less what the UN says, since they've routinely ignored everything coming from the UN relating to their nuclear program. They ignore international law, including the Geneva Convention.

And yet, this is the big hope for the British government?

Iran knows this and is seeing just how far they can push on this matter, and will apply the same kind of logic and pressure to the more important issue of nuclear weapons development. The Iranians are pushing the envelope and are seeing just how much they can get away with, and are jumping over those boundaries at will.

No one in the West seems willing or capable of mounting a response. The British don't have the military assets in place to mount a raid, though they could probably put a hurting on an Iranian oil refinery or two with missile strikes, but that wouldn't get their forces back any sooner. A rescue operation is far more difficult than simply lobbing missiles at a stationary target.

The US has the forces in theater, but lacks the willpower because of the persistent ankle biting by the Left - both here in the US and around the world.

The Iranians are right on one point. The British have miscalculated. They miscalculated by not taking military action right at the outset to stop the Iranians from taking the 15 back into Iranian waters, and then on to Tehran. The British response at this point is reactive, not proactive. They must do more to shape events instead of reacting to Iranian demands.

Meanwhile, this ploy may still be the work of the mad mullahs to secure the release of five Iranians captured by US forces in Irbil, Iraq who were providing support to insurgents/terrorists inside Iraq.

The Russians seem to think that the US is ready to strike Iran at any moment, but consider the source. The Russians are in cahoots with the Iranians - having provided them with military assets, not to mention technical and equipment assistance on the Iranian nuclear program. They want to try and publicly engage the US media and chattering class to stop another one of their client states from ending up on the ash heap of history (and losing another source of hard currency to boot).

Confederate Yankee has more on this aspect.

UPDATE:
So, we are now treated to another piece of agitprop courtesy of the Iranians. They're claiming to have produced another letter by Turney, which purports to question why the British are still operating inside Iraq. And the latest garbage from Iran is just that. A new letter claims that Turney is calling for the Brits to get out of Iraq.

The Iranian embassy in London has released a second letter it says is from British captive Faye Turney in which she calls on Britain to start withdrawing troops from Iraq. "Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?" said the letter, addressed to the British parliament.

That's right, a captured soldier in Iranian custody is questioning why other British troops in Iraq are still there when Iran is an interested party in ensuring chaos in Iraq that inures benefit to the Iranian mullahs. No, there's no Iranian agenda in this whatsoever. None.

As if this has anything to do with the reason that Iran invaded Iraqi water to capture the 15 British servicemembers? The Iranians are playing this for all its worth and no one is calling them on this nonsense. The British government has responded quite inadequately, and every day this drags on puts the British in a worse position.