Iran Wins in Hostage Crisis, Neville Nancy Can't Wait to Go to Tehran?

It's been a week since Iran released the British sailors and Marines which they held hostage after committing an act of war by seizing them in Iraqi waters, then violating the Geneva Conventions by using them as propaganda props.

After many tense days, meetings at the U.N. Security Council, meetings of European Union foreign ministers and direct talks between Iran and Britain Iran agreed to let the British naval personnel go free as "an Easter gift."

And that supposedly is the end of it. Like so many other of these crisis stories we're left wondering what if any followup will occur. It's like someone broke into your house, held your family hostage, but decided to let them go and you're just so relieved you drop the whole matter.

No further talk of sanctions, no continuing effort to isolate Iran. Nothing. Iran scores propaganda points by committing acts of war, taking hostages, violating the Geneva Conventions and we're just so relieved we can have a nice Easter holiday that we drop the matter.

Meanwhile, Iran's leadership reinforces the lessons they have learned from three decades of Western inaction. They can commit any outrage and pay no price.

A lesson which does not bode well for a future where Iran has nuclear weapons.

Contrary to the liberal media crowing about a victory for diplomacy the resolution to the hostage problem does not bode well for negotiations to resolve the nuclear issue. The Iranians have learned that no matter what they do, the West will not respond in any meaningful way.

Two very good articles with more:

• Mark Steyn as always is spot on.
• And former UN Ambassador John Bolton underscores the Iranian strategy that appears to be working against us.

How Iran Probed, Found Weakness and Won a Triumph
By John R. Bolton
American Enterprise Institute
Monday, April 9, 2007

...Emboldened as Iran now is, and ironically for engagement advocates, it is even less likely there will be a negotiated solution to the nuclear weapons issue, not that there was ever much chance of one. Iran, sensing weakness, has every incentive to ratchet up its nuclear weapons programme, increase its support to Hamas, Hizbollah and others and perpetrate even more serious terrorism in Iraq. The world will be a more dangerous place as a result. Evidence may already be at hand in the deaths of four British soldiers in Basra on Friday.

Just to drive that point home in case the leftist media didn't get it, Iran's President declared April 10, "Nuclear Day" to mark Iran's progress in producing the enriched uranium necessary for building a bomb.

Again, no calls for sanctions at the UN. No meetings of European foreign ministers, nothing.

Neville Nancy To Give Iran Further Boost?

Nothing that is but the latest statements from Neville Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Tom Lantos, the Democrat shadow Secretary of State. You would think after the strong reaction from their media allies opposing their illegal and unconstitutional amateur hour diplomacy in Syria they might think twice about inserting themselves into the Iran mess. You would think, but apparently Pelosi and Lantos were so intoxicated by photo ops of them shaking the hands of the Syrian dictator Assad, who has the blood of U.S. soldiers in Lebanon and Iraq on his hands, that they are eager to repeat that disastrous folly in Iran.

Pelosi, Lantos may be interested in diplomatic trip to Iran
By Carla Marinucci
San Francisco Chronicle
April 10, 2007

..."Speaking just for myself, I would be ready to get on a plane tomorrow morning, because however objectionable, unfair and inaccurate many of (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's) statements are, it is important that we have a dialogue with him,'' Lantos said. "Speaking for myself, I'm ready to go -- and knowing the speaker, I think that she might be.''
...
[Neville Nancy said:]"But a person of Mr. Lantos' stature and personal experience is saying that -- even as a Holocaust survivor and even recognizing the outrageous statements of the president of Iran -- it's important to have dialogue. I think that speaks volumes.''

Even if they don't make that trip, Pelosi and Lantos just handed the Iranians another propanda victory which they can use to fend off any meaningful concerted international action which might dissuade them from making a nuclear weapon.

It's amazing that liberals, represented by Pelosi and Lantos, who in the past routinely protested nuclear weapons development by the United States would play right into the hands of an enemy who is now doing the same.

If we've learned one lesson from the British hostage episode it is that diplomacy for the sake of diplomacy may pay a short term dividend, but at an enormous price later on. And more amateur hour diplomacy by unnacountable, irresponsible congressional leaders will only make the job that much more difficult.