Thursday
The author of an article I read this morning wonders if the approach of the USS Nimitz Forced Iran's Decision to release the British hostages. It is an interesting read but I can personally neither confirm nor deny the truth of it.
I do not think the regime in Iran is going to have a long life. Between their economic problems and falling birth rates they have serious problems, ones which a theocracy with delusions of grandeur will simply not be able to deal with.
Here's an interesting view from StrategyPage.com, who see it as a defeat for Ahmadinejad in the power struggles between factions within the Iranian regime.
Posted by Andrew Zalotocky at April 5, 2007 12:07 PM
Hasn't the falling birth rate been something the Iranian regime has been in favour of since around 1986?
http://www.iussp.org/Brazil2001/s20/S20_P01_Abbasi.pdf
Shooting themselves in the foot, perhaps?
Posted by Brendan Halfweeg at April 5, 2007 02:33 PM
I disagree with both. It's not another Carrier that makes change and Cuba or Zimbabwe thugs are still going.
Since there isnt know a massive emigration of Iranians i think the end of Islamic Regime is just wishfull thinking. Only a War or a couple decades can change that.
Posted by lucklucky at April 5, 2007 05:56 PM
According to articles in The Guardian and CounterPunch a deal was done with Iran, the sailors were released in exchange for Iranian diplomats held by the Americans.
Posted by kevin at April 5, 2007 07:23 PM
Give Iran credit for knowing to quit when they were ahead. They got a "sort of" apology, they got to be the magnanimous good guys, they got to distract the world from their nuke program for a few weeks, they got to humiliate Tony Blair (the mini-Satan) and they have hours and hours of video footage to play with and release when the mood strikes them. Oh and they got or will got their "diplomats" out of Iraq.
Posted by holdfast at April 5, 2007 10:28 PM
Well, like someone else mentioned, it looks like they are just shooting themselves in the foot.
Posted by Jim Fello at April 6, 2007 01:11 AM
With all the useful idiots we have over here, like the Pelosi-Lantos dog and pony show in Syria, I think the mullahcracy will long out last democracy in the West.
I even read an article by Wahid Phares that there is an extensive Western clique that planned and advised the Iranian regime on the sailor circus. Originally planned to drag into Christmas, they advised to bail out when the captive sailors were not getting the desired sympathy for Iran in western media.
Posted by Uain at April 6, 2007 09:16 PM
Even if they are on the way to the dustbin of history, the real question once they get nuclear weapons is how many of the rest of us will they take with them into oblivion?
Posted by John Steele at April 9, 2007 07:21 PM
