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Tehran's Hostages

[Wall Street Journal] Editorial - Fifteen British sailors and marines were kidnapped Friday in Iraqi territorial waters by the naval forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It was a premeditated act, carried out only hours before Britain voted to stiffen sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program in a unanimous UN Security Council resolution. It is worth recalling that Iran was at its most diplomatically pliant after the U.S. sank much of Tehran's navy after Iran tried to disrupt oil traffic in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980s. Regimes that resort to force the way Iran does tend to be respecters of it. It is also far from certain that Western military strikes against Revolutionary Guards would move the Iranian people to rally to their side. Most important, the world should keep in mind that Iran has undertaken this latest military aggression while it is still a conventional military power. That means that Britain and the U.S. can still respond today with the confidence that they maintain military superiority. That confidence will vanish the minute Iran achieves its goal of becoming a nuclear power.
2007-03-26 01:00:00
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