The British Soldiers

April 6th, 2007 Posted in Of Interest

Here’s their account: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/06/sailors.statement/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Understandable.

I think the incident is at a fundamental level much more embarrassing to the Iranians, because it shows the disorganization of their government and how certain renegade military elements have powers that transcend government policy considerations; and because their violation of the Geneva conventions should be a source of shame.

Again, the propaganda videos were simply creepy; it is scary that the right wing of the United States and Britain take Iranian propaganda more to heart (by blaming the obviously coerced soldiers and trying to guess whether they look tortured enough to be complying with the Iranians) than the fact that the Iranians violated the Geneva conventions in coercing the British soldiers and putting them on camera.

That’s because the right wing don’t themselves take these conventions seriously themselves; they are more concerned with humiliating the enemy and making sure the enemy doesn’t humiliate us; but of course, the premise of this humiliation is the value of might over right — you can’t be humiliated by the tactics the Iranians used here unless at some level you admire their power.