Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Hello Sailors.

The abducted sailors appear to be about to be released now which is in and of itself a good thing. However if Iran received any concessions in return for this deal, such as the release of their diplomat yesterday, then we have created an incentive for them to capture further hostages in future. No one has ever doubted that simply doing what Iran told us to would result in the release of the Navy personel, so it is particularly witless to babble on, as Matthew Yglesias does here, about 'Doves 1, Hawks 0', when we don't what combination of sticks and carrots have been shown to Iran behind the scenes.

1 comment:

JohnM said...

but the problem is that there is indeed a distinction between perception and the reality behind the scenes.

Iran is in a race to create nuclear weapons before they can be stopped. Anything they do that extends "negotiations" helps them achieve that aim. They have done what is necessary to strengthen the hands of the "Doves" in the west. Consequently, in the short term they have won. Articles like the one by Matthew Yglesias (see also Robert Fisk) prove this.