Iran Captures 15 British sailors
 

Iran Captures 15 British sailors and marines.

I'm kind of surprised that no one has brought this up yet.

Personally I see this as a suicidal move on Iran’s part. It doesn't look like this will actually incite war with Iran but “it was the straw that broke the camels back”. I wonder how many more straws it will take before Iran runs out of luck.

I only saw something briefly on a news ticker the other day, and I wondered what had prompted them to do it.

It seems particularly stupid at this point for Iranian forces not to offer up a warning before taking prisoners. I'm sure if they had told the soldiers to evacuate the immediate area this could have been settled much quicker.

Even if the Brits decided they couldn't do their job if they moved out of the area, they still could have confirmed the situation with their superiors.

Of course, that goes to Ahmadinejad's motives and his policy in all of this. If he doesn't care at this point who he pisses off, then there's no reason to be diplomatic.

Gumby, it's more of a delay in hopes that the Japanese will learn to stomach war again, Australia will strengthen its military, Russia will start acting in the interest of its people again, western and eastern Europe will promote strong international bonds, and our various Middle Eastern allies will avert their eyes for a moment. Until nearly all of those things come to pass (or Iran becomes incredibly silly and dangerous), we're stuck.

I heard of that in the news.

I am pretty sure, though, regarding the current excellent relations between Iran and UK that it won't be much of a problem. They will be released, soon.

What I hear from Brits is that they expect Iran to give the sailors back after some pointless posturing. The waters in the Northern Gulf are contested between Iran and Iraq as it is, and apparently this isn't anything new.