Mr Free Market comments on Iran...
Once upon a time, when a fair chunk of the earth's surface was coloured pink, lay your hands on a stout bulldog & at very least, a flying column under the command of Colonel Bufton-Tufton would be dispatched to wreck vengeance upon the transgressors. Instead, we have Mr Blah ...
Iran's detention of 15 Royal Navy personnel is "unjustified and wrong", Prime Minister Tony Blair has said. UK officials are waiting to be granted access to the HMS Cornwall staff, who were seized on Friday, and have not been told where the group are held. Hardline students close to Iran's president have called for the sailors to be put on trial. Iran says they were trespassing in its waters, but speaking at an EU summit, Mr Blair denied this was the case. "It simply is not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters and I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," Mr Blair said.
... which is all a right load of old 'bull' when the correct message to the sending to the Iranians is written in chalk of the noses of a bevy of Tomahawk missiles. After all, we had no compunction about carpet bombing the box'eads - surely not to afford the same treatment to Tehran is errrrr racist
Hello,
I received your email about the Navy books and duels, and on Sunday this article was in the Washington Times about two Navy books.
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy by Ian Toll, and Our Country, Right or Wrong: The Life of Stephen Decatur by Leonard F. Guttridge.
From the article: By Mr. Guttridge's account, Navy officers were a contentious lot, swift to perceive slights to their honor. Duels were the secret shame of the early Navy: "At least 82 duels involving naval officers would be recorded between 1798 and 1848. Thirty-six officers died on the 'field of honor,' half the survivors [were] wounded." Most duels involved "midshipmen scarcely out of their teens." Although Congress outlawed duels between military officers in 1806, most such conflicts in the Navy occurred overseas, out of the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. The Naval establishment felt that such affairs were no one else's business.
And this great quote: Decatur declaimed, "Our Country -- in her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, but always successful, right or wrong."
Also loved the authors panning of the writer from the liberal Washington comPost who didn't know the difference between a destroyer [USS Barry – housed here in DC at the Navy Yard] and a battleship.I tried to post this earlier, but got an error – sorry if it's posted twice. In case my link above doesn't work: http://washtimes.com/books/20070324-100654-1364r.htm is the Washington Times article…