The English Bulldog?

Ms. Phillips wonders what has happened to her country in light of the Iranian kidnapping of UK sailors and Royal Marines:

Some commentators have languidly observed that in another age this would have been regarded as an act of war. What on earth are they talking about? It is an act of war. There can hardly be a more blatant act of aggression than the kidnapping of another country’s military personnel.

What clearly does belong to another age is this country’s ability to understand the proper way to respond to an act of war. When his Marines were seized by the Iranians, the commander of HMS Cornwall, Commodore Nick Lambert, did nothing to stop them and later said it was probably all a misunderstanding. If Nelson had been such a diplomat in such circumstances, Trafalgar would surely have been lost.

Sigh. To remember "Britannia (used to) Rule The Waves," it's profoundly saddening when one realizes that such a thing would have precipitated an immediate declaration of war if Mrs. Thatcher were still PM.

She proposes the following:

First, we should set a clear deadline for the release of our Marines.

Second, we should change our military rules of engagement. The reason Commodore Lambert did nothing to stop the Marines being taken was because the current rules of engagement forbid action which might escalate a crisis.

That must change. We should state publicly that our rules of engagement are now being altered to allow us to defend ourselves.

Third, we should announce that we are seeking a UN resolution condemning the kidnap of our Marines and enabling us to use ‘all necessary means’ to get them back. And we should back this up with some significant moves by a couple of frigates.

Sure, those are all well and good.

Me, I'd send in one bomber carrying half a kiloton nuclear bomb and drop it in some deserted (there should be enough of this) area with a message to Mahmoud: "Tehran's next." I think that'd work better and faster. ;-)

In another article (for the Daily Mail, 26 March), Phillips takes on slavery, starting:

The abolition of Britain’s part in the slave trade was one of the most principled and inspiring events in this country’s history. Yesterday’s 200th anniversary of the Act that banned slavery in the British Empire should have been an occasion of national congratulation.

But from the orgy of breast-beating which has marked it, you would have thought instead that this country had actually invented slavery rather than played such a historic role in stopping it.

Read it.