Have a cold shower

Some much needed perspective is necessary to understand the current crisis over Iran's capture of the British naval personnel. Perhaps the best way to begin to understand is to reverse the roles. Imagine if a bunch of Iranian sailors were captured somewhere between the high seas and British territorial waters. What would the media's response be? The obvious answer, and perhaps you would share this sentiment, is that they had no right to be there in the first place. They would most certainly be paraded on international television. The Prime Minister would condemn this latest act of aggression by Iran. And Iran would profess that it is quite unlawful for Britain to detain their sailors who were merely undertaking a routine exercise in the high seas. Now this scenario immediately appears absurd because one cannot think of a circumstance where Iranian military assets would be roaming around the waters surrounding Western Europe. And that absurdity is at the heart of the present situation.

Lost in the present debate is the simple question, what righ does Britain have to be in the Persian Gulf in the first place? Please, spare me the patronising and naive talk about United Nations Security Council resolutions, of maintaining international peace and security, or even that the Iraqi Government, which was installed by the Americans and the British, invited the British into their waters. Of course, don't even try to mention that none too little matter of American deisgns over Iran, how it is an open secret that, at the very least, Pentagon planners are drawing up targets for a possible American invasion of the country.

Yes the capture of the British sailors has been something of a gold mine for Iran also. Iran is not your standard victim, if it is one at all. But the point is none of this would have happened if Western nations did not interfer in the geopolitics of the region. Let us not forget that most of the borders and nation states of the modern Middle East were created by the British, with some help from the French, after World World One.

If you don't want your sailors being captured, then go back to Britain.