Cascajun

Andrew Sullivan, commenting on Iran’s treatment of 15 captured British sailors:

Don’t people realize that this is what this episode is partly about? Iran, that disgusting regime, is showing much of the world that it treats prisoners more humanely than the U.S. That’s the propaganda coup they are achieving.

The problem with Andrew’s assessment is that the 15 British sailors aren’t prisoners. They are not POWs. And, they are not spies. They were taken hostage illegally by Iran and are being held for a political ransom. It’s not a propaganda coup, but it does clearly show the weakness of the UN and EU. The British sailors were operating under UN saction and are citizens of the EU. Quoting Mark Styn:

Even Oxford and Hoover’s Timothy Garton Ash, one of the most indefatigable of those Euro-boosters, seemed to recognize the Iranian action was a challenge to Europe’s pretensions. “Fifteen Europeans were kidnapped from Iraqi territorial waters by Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” he wrote. “Those 14 European men and one European woman have been held at an undisclosed location for nearly a week, interrogated, denied consular access, but shown on Iranian television, with one of them making a staged ‘confession,’ clearly under duress. So if Europe is as it claims to be, what’s it going to do about it?”

Short answer: Nothing.

[…]

OK, well, how about the United Nations? Those student demonstrators want the execution of “British aggressors.” In fact, they’re U.N. aggressors. HMS Cornwall is the base for multinational marine security patrols in the Gulf: a mission authorized by the United Nations. So what’s the U.N. doing about this affront to its authority and (in the public humiliation of the captives) of the Geneva Conventions?

Short answer: Nothing.

The UN couldn’t even bring itself to issue a condemnation of Iran’s actions, but rather issued a statement of concern for the hostages. How weak can you get?