The 15 British sailors who had been held by Iran are back in Britain now, and the U.S. cable news stations are asking "So who won"? The tendency to reduce such a serious matters to some kind of spectator sport is disturbing, but it may be a useful way to examine how the different parties in this matter conducted themselves.
I suppose the biggest "winners" here are the sailors themselves. They found themselves, apparently through no fault of their own, held by a hostile power and being used as pawns in a very high-stakes and dangerous situation. They did what they needed to get out, get home and live to fight another day.
To quote General Patton: "No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country."
The biggest "losers," one would hope, will be the British military leaders who put their personnel in harms way without sufficient backup and allowed them to be taken hostage without a fight.
Iran comes somewhere in the middle. The hardliners now have a nice war story to tell their grandchildren someday. As a nation, though, they have strengthened the hand of their opponents.
Syria is claiming it helped negotiate the release. If confirmed, it would mark an important win for that country as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment