Blair Speaks on the Released Sailors (Video)

If we do nothing, then once the USS Stennis and other carriers are moved, then Iran will continue to press claims and extend boundaries, threatening eventually all traffic through the gulf which obviously cannot be allowed.

Here’s Tony Blair speaking of the released sailors, as well as the four British soldiers killed this morning by IED’s. Note how he tapdances around the fact that Iran is manufacturing and supplying IED’s capable of destroying armored vehicles to insurgents in Iraq (reported here last July,) and clandestinely supporting the insurgency in Southern Iraq.

Ynet reports on the roadside bombing in Shia-Majority Basra: 

Four British soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in a roadside bomb blast that destroyed their Warrior armoured fighting vehicle in the Iraqi city of Basra on Thursday, the British military said.

The deaths brought to six the number of British soldiers killed in Iraq this week, making it one of the deadliest for British forces since the US-led invasion in 2003. “Last night four soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in a roadside bomb attack on a Warrior to the west of Basra,” British military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Stratford-Wright said from the southern Iraqi city. A fifth soldier was seriously wounded.

 The tactical and strategic considerations of this need to be examined.

Tactical first: 

First, review of Rules of Engagement is needed for everyone in theater vis-a-vis Iran.

Second, examination of the timing and what this sideshow distraction was for is definitely in order. (Did Iran want the Brits backed down from inspections in Shat Al Arab for a period of time, and if so, why? Who or what might have been smuggled into Southern Iraq during this timeframe?)

Strategic:

We have to expect more bellicosity if this wasn’t a temporary distraction, and have to look at this in light of their past practices (Straits of Hormuz engagements, previous kidnapping in 2004, and the arrest of Romanian Oil workers on platforms in the gulf.)

If this is purely a move to extend domain (as all the previous actions indicate,) what does that tell us? Is Iran after oil in this area?

What moves should we make to clearly overthrow the false claims? (Show the flag patrols? UN Hearings/resolutions?)

What are the ramifications for the government of Iraq, especially considering the past war with Iran over some of these boundaries?

If we do nothing, then once the USS Stennis and other carriers are moved, then Iran will continue to press claims and extend boundaries, threatening eventually all traffic through the gulf which obviously cannot be allowed.