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Thursday, April 05, 2007
The dance is over: Ahmadinejad's "gift"
I was intrigued by today's front page of The Independent, a UK newspaper that has been following the capture and release of 15 British sailors in Iran. Considering both angles of a story? What a concept!
As the story suggests, it's hard to say exactly who "won" this episode. On the one hand, Tony Blair and the Brits were level-headed the whole time, not jumping the gun, and I think this helped secure the release of the sailors. Patience and diplomatic constraint payed off. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad played the West like a deck of cards and was successful in completely mocking the Middle East policy of Britain and the United States. The final kick in the cajones came when he returned the sailors as "a gift." Ahmadinejad was basically saying that he can play hardball, and that he never had any intention of trying the sailors for entering Iranian waters. World politics is a strategic game of chess, and this becomes quite clear when the United States isn't directly involved and thus unable to spin the situation.
Posted by Will at April 5, 2007 08:35 AM in In the News