Memo to Tehran: Give it up!

This appeared on MSNBC Hardball Hardblogger

Okay guys, you stepped in it this time. You really need to figure out a face-saving way to get out of the mess you have created by seizing 15 British sailors and marines.

Your past record is abominable, so what makes you think that anyone is buying this fiction that the British were in Iranian waters? Putting young British sailors on Iranian television reciting obviously coerced “confessions” is ludicrous – no one but possibly the most gullible among your domestic audience takes these statements as fact. Even more ridiculous are the letters written by the sole woman among the detainees, as well as her appearances in a chador. Again, do you really think that anyone believes this charade is how members of the Royal Navy would comport themselves in captivity?

Of course, one only needs to look back on the glorious history of the Islamic Republic to answer that question. After all, you are the same people that seized the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held over 50 American diplomats hostage for more than a year. In 1982, you deployed your Qods Force to Lebanon to create another laudable group – Hezbollah. Not happy with just that feat, you began taking hostages there, seizing and murdering the CIA Chief of Station in Beirut and a U.S. Marine colonel serving with the United Nations.

Your handling of the 2004 incident—the three-day detention of eight British sailors and marines in a similar incident—was only marginally better. Yes, you got your “apology” and tried to embarrass the British on the world stage.

News flash: No one believes you!

Your recent statement that you will release the 15 Britons when the United Kingdom withdraws its forces from Iraq is reminiscent of similar demands made by Iraqi insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq members after they had seized nationals of coalition member countries. Are you sure you want to be cast in the same light as terrorist cutthroats?

What you are doing now appears to be a childish reaction to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous vote to toughen sanctions on you for your defiance of the world over your uranium enrichment activities. The impression that you have made on the world—when Iran does not get its way, it takes hostages. Now there’s a legacy for the Islamic Republic….

Now that you have shown your true colors, do your really think that anyone is going to trust you when you make claims about your “nuclear energy” research program?

One could reach the conclusion that you guys are looking for a fight. Keep this up and you just might get one.