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Questions abound after British sailors released

Posted: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 2:18 PM by Hardball

The Iranians have decided to release the 15 British sailors and Marines they have held hostage for over 12 days.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he had “pardoned” the British during the celebration of the birth of the prophet, which this year almost coincides with Easter.  To the world, he appears to have made a magnanimous gesture. 

Good news, of course, but now comes the post mortem.  There are many questions to be answered, not the least of which are what did the British give to secure the release of their service members, and will Iran pay a price for their action?

Most of the world believes the British were operating in Iraqi waters and this whole affair was engineered by the Iranians to draw attention from its nuclear program.  Inside Iran, the affair may have played well - distrust of the British is an ingrained emotion.  It was Britain, after all, that granted Iraq total sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab when they created the country in the aftermath of World War One.  It is that same body of water that sparked decades of disputes between Iran and Iraq, including 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War.  It is also the venue of the current Iranian action against the British anti-smuggling team.  The current border in the waterway is the thalweg, the deepest part of the channel, not always easy to define – confrontations are probably unavoidable.

So what did the British give to secure the release of their service members?  The Royal Navy has always maintained that their naval units were operating inside Iraqi territorial waters, and it appears that stance has not changed.  That said, several of the 15 Britons did make “confessions” on Iranian television.  I suspect they will be called on to explain that decision.  It’s a tough call for a detainee to make – do I go on television and perform as demanded to prevent mistreatment of my subordinates, do I appear to send a message to my government and family that I am alive and well, or refuse to comply and suffer the consequences?  I am sure the Royal Navy will ask.

Probably more important in the long run, what price does Iran pay?  In recent days, some commentators believe Iran will emerge from this situation as the winner.  How can that be?  They precipitated the crisis.  The immediate reaction to the “pardon” and release is that the Iranians are the good guys in this.  I hope not.  Ahmadinejad found a face-saving way out of a mess he created – nothing more.

The Iranians need to be held accountable for this charade.  They probably won’t.  That may be in fact the British accommodation.

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Comments

None of the world's governments have the collective balls to do anything. Nothing will ever be done because the world is so worried about being politically correct it doesn't stand up for anything anymore. Iran should be severely punished but we all know that will never happen. Iran appears magnanimous but we all know they are the same thugs the rest of that part of the world are. That magnanimous appearance is for noone but themselves.

Peter, Texas (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 3:53 PM)

Ahmadinejad doesn't have to worry what the entire world thinks, only what the Arab world thinks and I'll guarantee you he is a big hero to them right now. The mess he created?? What mess would that be? Who did he invade on lies? I didn't see him shuttling those sailors off to secret prisons or photograph them being humiliated and tortured so his soldiers could leer at them and pass them around. All the while, he got America to pound its chest ineffectively in front of the world while he ignored it. American can't do anything to him militarily or politically. To the Arab world, he stood up to the evil empire and he released the Brits on his own terms and he still has his nuke program and there is nothing the US or Britain can do about that or about the seizure of these sailors. All Blair can say is, "No hard feelings." We created him and we're not stuck with him. It doesn't look to me like a mess for Ahmadinejad at all. He made out like a bandit on all the botching and miscues of Britain and the US.

jorge (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:02 PM)

I believe that you have seen President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lose the first round of the struggled that is going on within Iran for control of that country. Who won is the real question. Did the Iatola's keep their grasp or di those pro western allies gain ground. We may not know for some time.

Carol, Boston, MA (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:04 PM)

come on, Chris, by your own words the sovereignty of the waterway in question was given into the hands of an artificial entity ( Iraq ) created at the end of WWI by Great Britian, and we can presune for the benefit of Great Britian to the dismay of Iran . Further , this has been a constant source of dispute ever since and now, surprise, surprise we have a situation.To me this smacks of the Gulf of Tonkin episode which precipitated the needless and wasted deaths of over 50,000 Americans and who knows how many Vietnamese ( yes dying for a needless cause is a waste , you can look it up ) or perhaps we don't count the death of the Vietnamese because after all THEY'RE DIFFERENT THAN US much like the innocent souls in IRAQ

Bert Develle , Hawthorne Florida (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:22 PM)

Had the tables been turned and another nationality illegally breached our borders, I suspect our government would have branded them enemy combatants and given them rendition in Guantanamo or ethiopia.

John Doe, Seattle WA (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:23 PM)

To quote George H.W. Bush: "You don't reward someone for something that they have done that they shouldn't have done in the first place." - This was ~late summer 1990 when answering a question posed by a reporter on how to reward Saddam Hussein for doing a good deed prior to the Gulf War. The same holds true now.

Jeff Kuhn, Long Island NY (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:25 PM)

Don't blame the captives,they did what they had to do.Blame the Iranians, not the people,but their leadership. It's a political game of chess, in which nobody loses but the common folk. History will repeat itself,and governments will come and go, all at the expense of the common people.

Larry Reynolds, Hickory,North Carolina (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:26 PM)

How are we ever to know if the British sailors were operating in Iraqi waters or Iranian waters? Oh yeah, we get the Bush administration, the Blair administration, and Col. Francona. I'm not saying I trust Ahmadinejad, mind you. But Ahmadinejad has never lied to me. Bush clearly has (at least on TV), Blair has lied to his people. We're never going to know for sure, because you can't trust anybony in power anymore. I'd sure like to think Iran is in the worng here, but how can we ever KNOW?

Tom Fartin (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:34 PM)

I'm still puzzled: Those sailors had been inspecting a ship for contraband. They'd arrived on the scene on a British warship and then had used a zodiac style boat to get to the freighter. What was the British warship doing while the Iranians were rushing to the scene to take the Brits into custody? Shouldn't they have been firing on the approaching Iranians who were, per the Brits, in Iraqi waters?

Nick, Homewood , Il (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:36 PM)

Is it cynical to suggest that the Britons made some kind of deal with Iran? If so, it would be interesting to find out what they gave Iran in return for getting their people back.

Mr. Lucas Brice (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:42 PM)

It is funny how angry we are. If Iranians were on our coast and we captured them, would we call them hostages? man right wing crack smokers are trying too hard to pick a fight and Iran played a smart role in not getting involved in this one.

John Doe, Seattle, Wash (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:42 PM)

I don't think politically or militarily Iran lost anything. But I suspect that it will be harder for the few countries to maintain trade with Iran (and still maintain ties to the world ecomony) Russia are you listening? Change will come about by their economy grinding to a halt like the old soviet empire. Lets see how long they last with their Cuba, Venesuala, North Korea trading block.

Chaz (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:44 PM)

What right did Britain have over the Iranian waterways to give it away to the Iraqis after WWI? All of a sudden everybody seems to want to call the PERSIAN GULF, Shatt al-Arab!!! The tensions in Middle East are deep routed in the arrogance of the west in giving away the natural resources and dividing the land like it is their own. How would Britain react if Iran was doing that to their land?

Sam Johns (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:12 PM)

I agree with Bert. This 'us against them' attitude that only serves to perpetuate the problem does not work and it never has. It is amazing that the world governments and many of it's citizens have not yet learned from past mistakes. When are we going to collectively wake up and learn to deal with the "thems" of the world diplomatically. Each one of us is a "them" to some other culture or idea. And an even better question might be what do the people underneath the governmental infrastructures do when they become more evolved/enlightened or whatever than the government? The governmental systems have been in place for so long that they will undoubtedly go down fighting. In the meantime the world citizens lose lives and quality of life waiting for their governments to stop fighting like 2-year-olds.

Jana, Shelley, Idaho (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:20 PM)

Here's the immediately preceeding historical context of these events, which you left out: The US pecipitated the crisis by kidnapping 4 Iranian nationals in Kurdistan in a failed attempt to seize 2 high-ranking Iranian security officials while they were on official visit to Kurdistan and talking with Kurdish governmental represetatives - creating an embarrasing situation for some of America's strongest allies in the Iraqi government. They are still being held, illegally, by the US government. At the same time a high-ranking Iranian diplomat was kidnapped by US-allied forces in Iraq and was finally released just before Iran's announcement that it would release the 15 British saliors. These actions were taken with the cynial hope that they would provoke the Iranians into a belligerant reaction that would provide the Bush administration with a pretext for a bombing campaign against Iran. As it happened the Iranians bided their time until they could respond in an indirect manner - they cleverly seized British nationals, not Americans. Blair could not have responded militarily without being imediately sacked by parliament, since he has no political support at home for war with Iran. This left Bush to fulminate impotently, and set the stage for the "magnanimous" gesture of releasing the British crew memebers, creating an obvious contrast between Iran's willingness to negociate diplomatic solutions and the illegal and bellicose actions and unrepentant inflexability of the US government. Despite the fact that you and the US corporate media have no interest in providing the information that would allow a US audience to make sense of this melodrama, the rest of the world has a better picture of the sequence of events and this is the audience the Iranians are courting. While the Iranian and the US administrations mirror each other in their repugnant fundamentalist ideologies, its clear that the folks with the brains are in Tehran, not Washington.

john riehle, los angeles, california (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:21 PM)

Compared to the catastrophic blunder that the American occupation of Iraq has been, this incident was a tinkle in the ocean. Piece o' cake! The Brits handled it superbly. Much will be gained by expanding our dialogue with all of the Middle Eastern countries/governments. It's already happening.

rick rodriguez, corpus christi, TX (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:30 PM)

Although the article touched on some of the important issues surrounding the confrontation, it fell short by relying on that hoary old "they did it to take attention away from their nuke program" explanation. Unlike the current occupiers of the White House, most leaders are not that concerned with controlling the flow of CNN's news cycle. The simplest explanation for this event is that like a batter crowding the plate, the British had moved close to or over the disputed border. The Iranians threw a "brush back" pitch like they did before. Even the British say that the ships were within a mile of Iran's borders. Obviously we would be upset if Russian warships were parked near San Diego inspecting Mexican shipping, and would do what we cold to push them away.

George,Seattle,WA (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:32 PM)

Regarding the behaviour of the Brits, I, also was not impressed (being a Brit) myself. But I do believe that British service personnel are told to say and do whatever they need to do to stay alive and not to exacerbate the situation. We had a couple of fliers in the first Gulf War who said anything on t.v. to stay alive until they were released. I was more appalled by the female being made to wear the badge of shame. Nazis, forced Jews, Catholics, Homosexuals to wear badges of shame. Muslims, apparantly force women, especially those not of their culture to do the same.

Tim, Baltimore (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:37 PM)

It's clear to me that the English Sailors broke so quickly because there was a woman on board. What's disappointing is that the British government caved so quickly as well. What happened to the brave Londoners that held their heads high during the Blitz? I fear that all courage has left the British Isles.

Emma Morrow, Urbana, IL (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:42 PM)

the middle east prides themselves on martyrdom and death as a way of successful life. let them continue to think that. they are scared. they are defiant, but they are scared. they have oil and nothing else and they know it. they see their grip on politics loosening (even in their own region of the world). the smartest thing that man has done since the spotlight shined on him is let those troops go and he knows it. you really think britian would put up with that crap for too much longer? what people fail to realize is that britian was not sitting by waiting and saying "hmmm i wonder if they're going to let them go?" no they were no the phone making deals probably directly with the iranians. the public gets 2% of the facts and the government lets them speculate until they think they have it figured out. and as long as public opinion doesn't spoil the goverment's motives, the governemnt happily lets the public think what they want. it happens everyday and will continue to happen for as long as governaments exist. WAKE UP!!! you don't know what you're talking about. 7 or 8 people knew what was going on with those troops and that's it. with the exception of small 3rd world countries that have no political pull, governments have too much to lose on stupidity. these are fundamentalist people that don't draw a line between god and government, but that doesn't make them less calculating and sly. they pray different and they speak a different languange and their skin color is different. other than that they are the same as us. hooligans and thieves that will do most anything to protect their own selfish interests and save themsleves from defamation of character whenever they can. the majority of the bush adminiatration (in my eyes) are the same selfish thieves that will do anything and say anything to not look stupid. iran-contra, cocaine in the 80's. it happens all the time.

Hunter Jacksonville Fl (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:49 PM)

Iran's ability to play hardball with Britain serves the national and regional interest at a time when Western powers manipulate the Middle East landscape almost at will. Let's get something very clear, Iran has just sent a clear message that the 'buck stops here'! The threatening rhetorics from the US and its allies (whatever is left of them)against Iran are nothing but empty growls. Respect Iran, the will of her people and more importantly its territrial integrity. Diplomacy is the way out of 28 years of deadlock with Iran!

Arya, Toronto (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:51 PM)

What this shows is how much we really Do Not Get that other people on the planet have different views and opinions. Just because there views are different does not always mean they will act like barbarians and it does not mean that are pereceptions are always accurate. There is great evil in the world but we have turned every minor disagreement into something to demonize people we disagree with. The art of diplomancy is an art not an exact science. Diplomancy does work when we look at the real issues and not imagniary dangers. All people want to live in peace, freedom, and dignity. Sometimes we need people like Dr. King, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela to remind us of our true nature and our greater purposes. Lets give a Big Hurrah for those who want peace and prosperity on this planet not just for themselves or their idealogy but for all. I can never be totally free if another human being is made to suffer.....

Ronnie Wislon-Bassett, Houston, Texas (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:53 PM)

It is called twisting the Monkey's tail. Ahmadinejad got an opportunity to twist Tony Blair's tail, that is all. See what US is doing now- sending baby Al Qaida teams from Pakistan to cause destruction and destabilization in Iran. West has not learned its lesson yet. What you SOW so shall you REAP. The dirty tricks you use will come back to haunt you. The Mission is not accomplished. Afganistan is in trouble as Al Qaida is still alive and kicking. Pakistan is still training future Jihadis in its 'madarsas'. Shias and Sunnis will continue their millenium old rivalries in Iraq. So after loosing billions of $$$ and more than 3200 precious American lives, what do we have? STAY the COURSE.

Yogi, Austin, Texas (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 6:08 PM)

Very Intresting that the article was written by and ex-military offical.. well if you believe the cause of the Iran-Iraq war was becuase of the waterway you are mistaken sir, you know as well as i know what the truth behid that was, think Rumsfeld, 83, Baghdad, and Saddam, in regards to release of the british, they trespassed, got caught, like they did in 2004, and were released, iran was within its rights, as is its atomic program, so i beg the question do you really think that britian would actully admit to doing worng, in front of the whole world, i think not. this should be a lesson to both Britain and the US, Tread softly..

Haas, Irvine,CA (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 6:54 PM)

The British took a hard stance. When doing business in the Middle East, you must take a hard stance on any issue. The people of the Middle East love to bargin and if you show any sign of weakness you will lose and it will cost you more than it should. That is why President Bush will win this war on Terror. He is taking a hard stance that these people respect. If we lose, it will be because we Americans show signs of weakness. Ask anyone that does business in the Middle East. Jimmy Carter showed signs of weakness during the first Iranian Crisis in 1979. The Ayatollah Khomeini released the Hostages because he knew about President Reagan being a hard liner. The people of Iran and the rest of the Middle East did not respect Carter because he was soft. Anwar Sadat gave his life for peace with Israel because he too was considered weak after coming to Camp David and signing the peace treaty.

Delmar Fairchild, Barron Wisconsin (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:05 PM)

The good treatment of those marines by the Iranian people shows that they are in fact more civilized than what the US and UK administrations are trying to portrait them. Stop following orders from your masters at the Pentagon and star telling the truth for a change. The maps were faked. Iran does have human rights problems but truthfully, the US and UK have worst problems since they rejected all together the Geneva Convention. But the sad news is that so have the people of those countries since there is nothing being done to expose those lies, the tortures, this pure evil from western governments... people apparently support their governments... sad!

Raymond Belanger, Chilliwack, BC, Canada (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:14 PM)

As far as I am concerned, Iran did the right thing, as the imperialistic war machine is frothing at the mouth, poised to pounce on Iran over the most marketable provocation.

Steve Orr, Saskatoon, SK, Canada (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:17 PM)

Small demands for 15 cowards (women being equal of course). Don't take this fight public, whilst the Iranians get to do what they want publicly. Imagine the list of demands they would make for 15 nukes! Who is the winner? I'd say Blair government in the West (well spoken); and the weasel Ah-mad-in-ja(haa)d in his neck of the woods. This is another tragedy of a broken diplomatic corps in the US. PS real nice propaganda tool these sailors gave the Revolutionary Guard! I hope they get the pleasure of having everyone they will ever know watch the videos repeatly over the DECADES. By the way, I didn't see any bruises in their confession videos. What did they Iranians use to get more than their, name, rank, and serial numbers? Hope we are all adding How to Withstand Tickle Torcher to our military training, looks like serious stuff.

Frank Mil,er, Chicago, IL (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:17 PM)

Sorry Colonel; thank you sincerely for your service to our country, but your views are misguided. Not that I'm a big fan of Iran, but Iran handled this particular conflict with diplomacy. The British vessel was in Iranian waters, so stop trying to spin it the other way. The U.S. and U.K. are not "most of the world". The real question is: what was the British Royal Navy doing in Iranian waters, especially at the same time the U.S. has sent vessels to the Persian Gulf? You should be asking that question, and so should the press. A smaller nation against the bigger U.S./U.K. coalition (which has been saber rattling and itching for a fight against Iran) still has the clear-headedness to resolve the conflict diplomatically? I say thank you. Who cares what it took to resolve conflict - it can't be remotely as close to being as costly as going to war. There are other ways to handle international incidents without bombs. This drives the U.S. warmongerers nuts.

freeseart, Seattle, WA (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:25 PM)

Realpolitik. This is a war of the roses. Irreconcilable differences will not be mended through compromise or moral suasion. Yes, the Iranians captured the sailors via incursion into Iraqi waters. However, I don't believe they were returned for concessions. Rather, the pawns had served their purpose; the Iranians have amply demonstrated their ability to sneer at the West. The British and Americans, for their part, gained nothing here. The inflationary effect of crisis oil in tandem with a looming recession, fiscal deficits and war financing woes have emasculated US foreign policy. The Bush administration has squandered its post-Cold War power base and I doubt it will ever recover - regardless of which party wins the election. Empires rise, and empires fall. The very outcomes the Conservative right sought to avoid are being driven by the very means of avoidance. And sadly, this is just one volley. Stay tuned.

Sean Rickman, Toronto Ontario (Canada) (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:29 PM)

Small demands for 15 sailors. Don't take this fight public, whilst the Iranians get to do what they want publicly. Imagine how fair their list of demands would be for 15 nukes! Who are the winners here? I'd say the Blair government in the West (well spoken).I hope Mr. Bush was taking notes. It would be nice to think he might pick up a thing or two about public diplomacy after six years of alienating just about everyone. And, the weasel Ah-mad-in-ja(haa)d in his neck of the woods. Those service members’ videos sure do the trick. PS real nice propaganda tool these sailors gave the Revolutionary Guard! I hope these Brits get the pleasure of having everyone they will ever know watch the videos repeatedly over the DECADES. By the way, I didn't see any with any bruises in their confession videos. What did they Iranians use to get more than their, name, rank, and service ID numbers? Hope we are all adding, "How to Withstand Tickle Torture” to our military training. Or "How to Identify When You are Being Killed with Kindness". Each one that gave a public message should be held to account. This includes the female service member receiving her EQUAL share of any judgments, and not sympathy for her gender. I am more shocked by the follow up videos of the group smiling and horse playing at their release. What type of young people are we enlisting that they are at all proud at acts of cowardice, and disobeying direct standing orders? Let me spell it out for you, NAME, RANK, and SERVICE ID NUMBERS! Keep the rest to yourself. If you have been tortured and you can not take any more OK, we will all understand. But don't try to sell the rest of us that a turkey dinner and a pack of Camel cigarettes is all it takes!

Frank Miller (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 8:24 PM)

Militarily, we can't attack Iran because at some point you have to send in the ground troops to take control and seal off the borders. We couldn't even accomplish that with Iraq--a smaller country and that was when we were at full strength. We simply don't have the personnel or materiel to carry out any kind of attack. We cannot topple Ahmadinejad anyway because we ran our mouths too much about the importance of spreading democracy in the Middle East. The problem for us is that Ahmadinejad was democratically elected by the Iranian people. If we topple him, we lose whatever cred we still have. The world will see an aggressor nation who squawks about democracy but reserves the right to knock down any it doesn't like. Huge mistake if we try it. This little incident is over and it best be forgotten. It could have turned out so much worse. Ahmadinejad made his point: he seized these sailors and we couldn't do much about it. We created this mess and we're going to have to learn to deal with it. Attacking Iran is not in the cards. The cowboy-diplomacy-from-the-barrel-of-a-gun days are over.

jorge (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 9:12 PM)

Do not fantasize... politically, Iran won this move... They "knew/believed" the Brits were on their waters, they could send them to their "Guantanamo", they made "a humanitarian" gesture, "Passover/Easter gift"... The public is not naive and "most of the world" was not so sure about ownership of the waters... those are far from The Isles... What is worse for us, the big guys want to globalize world on their terms, they started the struggle, it has not been easy, so far, and we are kept hostage, all of us are caught, and history of the world does not know what "humanitarian gesture" is... we are as strong as our Christian civilization, cultures and values are. The people controlling big money for a long time try to melt down these values, apparently not knowing they commit suicide. In the long run the military power does not mean too much...

VTZ, Ontario, Canada (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 10:08 PM)

Great PR stunt by the Iranians, very well executed.

Peter Smirnoff (Sent Wednesday, April 04, 2007 10:35 PM)

How can you draw into these conclusions while no one is 100% about wether the servicemen's capture site was in the Iranian waters or Iraqi. The British are saying that they were in Iraq, the Iranians saying that they were in Iran. Anyone could be lying, but believing the British side of the story is playing doulble standard that the west always seems to play. For all we know the sailors might have been saying the truth in the Iranian television. But I agree if Iranians staged this, it was just a face saving way for Ahmedinajad. However, if its the other way than Iran came out as far better country and roghtfully so. Its a slap in the face for America and the western civil rights and democracy for their own treatment of the prisoners in ABu Gharib and Guantanamo prison cells. Shame...

nick, sydney, Australia (Sent Thursday, April 05, 2007 12:27 AM)

Appeasement and pre-emptive national surrender have been for some decades and is now the foremost policy of the British Government and the British people. The brits won't do a da*n thing to stand fast and show some testicular fortitude. They were once the foremost naval power in the world and Britain's motto then was that they would have to build a navy which can simultaneously crush to no.2 and no.3 naval powers, at the same time! But gone is the Churchill in Britain's society, gone is the never surrender! What Britain only welcomes now is Peace In Our Time. Perhaps, one day when they are led by their necks to the newly opened facilities at auschwitz, treblinka, bergen-belsen and majdanek will they understand the folly of not fighting on the beaches, on the hills, in the cities......

Bernard (Sent Thursday, April 05, 2007 3:50 AM)

One has to rejoice at the return of these people. Anyone who cannot see through their "confessions" is hopelessly naive. The Iranians once again have shown their true stipes. We have to be united and prepared in oppostion to them. It is unforunate in the extreme that the stupid, wasteful, unnecessary war in Iraq has strengthened Iran's hand. Through it all, our president still doesn't get it.

Jim, Massapequa NY (Sent Thursday, April 05, 2007 10:29 AM)

Why all the anti-Iran hate Francona? Francona is a "ex" agent. Is Francona part of propaganda group, that seeks war & profits. How many constant Iran is bad and we need to teach Iran a lesson are we going to get by neoConartist Francona. Only get one sided pro Francona comments. GE & NBC need to keep it real. Too bad only get one side.

mike, Boise, Idaho (Sent Thursday, April 05, 2007 10:55 AM)

How dare anyone even begin to judge what these service men and women did??!! You were not there, you do not know what happened, but so many of you sit in judgement of the decisions they made. How vain, but that is what Americans are becoming now, is it not?

kristy Paris, Texas (Sent Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:12 AM)

Iran was in the wrong point blank, they have yet to whole heartily prove those sailors were in there waters. Yes the sailors said they were in those waters, but ask yourselves one question, if you have been in a foriegn land none for evil acts against humans, would you have not said what they wanted to hear. Of course most of us would. Now the fact of the matter is most of this world are libberal cowards, all they want to do is stay so dang politically correct its sickening. Im not sure if they have been blurting out their BS for so long that they actually believe it or if they just trying to win votes. Sorry people we can win wars and battles with flowers its not going to happen. People have been fighting for 100 of thousands of years its never going to change. So why not be the toughest on the block, Im sorry but if it takes sheer brute force and straight up bullying to keep me, my family and my country and my counrties people safe then so be it. I refuse to feel bad for that. Call me an overzealous idiot if you will, however I refuse to be bullied by their terrioristic threats.

Noah, Tennessee (Sent Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:18 AM)



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