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Big In Iran
The sight of westerners being ritually humiliated by bloodthirsty religious nutcases has become depressingly familiar in recent weeks. Thankfully, the eight British fighters who were forced into Iranian territory and later paraded on one of that nation's propaganda channels did not face the fate of several civilian workers in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless, it seems that only Mark Steyn sees the significance of the soldiers' capture, media confessions and subsequent release (though Iran appears to have decided to hang on to their equipment and boats.)
The British press, which works itself into a frenzy of outrage at each reported prisoner abuse in Guantanamo Bay or Iraq, played down abuse of British hostages.
Prime Minister Tony Blair was uncharacteristically silent. His foreign minister, Jack "peace and blessings be upon his name" Straw, who has been working a touchy-feely Iran strategy with his French and German counterparts, had an exchange of views with Tehran's man in London. He later admitted that while Britain and Iran are officially friends, relations between the two nations can be "complicated."
According to Steyn, however, straight talking might be in order with a nation governed by people who have no difficulty making clear what they would like - in Iran's case, a nuclear weapon capable of causing a second Holocaust in Israel.
While you're at the Telegraph, check out Will Cummins' op-ed on Islam and the west.
It's a version of history very different from the politically-correct platitudes certain western leaders have been emitting in recent years.
