(Cartoon courtesy of Michael Ramirez, IBD)
I hope you weren’t among those so grateful for Iran’s quick release of our sailors and their boats that you dismiss the fact that it again pointed to America’s weakness abroad.
Pictures of our sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads were broadcast around the world with quotes by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general saying our Marines were “crying,” and “admitted humbly our power and might.”
With world opinion of our might at its lowest, it isn’t difficult for me to understand how many would believe the general’s remarks, especially in view of our inaction in the Middle East. The apology by one of the sailors certainly didn’t help.
Even if a Freedom of Information Act request is lodged with the Department of Defense, we aren’t likely to learn what actually happened in the Straits of Hormuz last week.
Surely, the Iranians removed any navigational gear aboard our boats that would enable the U.S. Navy to retrace the path of the boats at the time of capture. We just learned that SIM cards were removed from the crew’s satellite phones. It is hard for me to imagine that someone on one of those boats wasn’t able to radio its lat/long location up the chain of command prior to the Iranian boarding.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John “Swiftboat” Kerry and President Obama were quick to have us believe it was their years of diplomatic efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions that enabled our government to gain their release.
If you believe the Kerry and Obama statements on our new diplomatic relationship with Iran, you would have to wonder then why Iran didn’t simply warn our two crews that they had entered their territorial waters (if they did) and offered assistance if one of our boats indeed had engine problems?
With the release of the sailors and the other hostages, and word that we have severely delayed Iran’s effort to product a nuclear weapon, don’t get comfortable with the administration’s chumminess with Iran. Iran is, and will continue to be, the center of terror in the world.
