Stiff upper lip

Fraulein's obviously speechless, I am almost. As a Brit, I am ashamed to be British seeing the shenanigans of the captured sailors and marines by Iran recently. There they were, admitting they were in the wrong place on the sea, smiling and joking, playing ping-pong, receiving gifts from that cretin of a president, thanking the Iranians for capturing them, stealing all their weapons and personal belongings, and the Navy's boat, worth I'm told over $300,000. What a great advert for the British Royal Navy and Royal Marines.........NOT!!!!!!
I know I wasn't there, but would the Iranians have done if the Brits had told them to go and do one, then, turned their boat towards their mother ship? I suggest nothing. Would they have really slaughtered the British servicemen? I don't think so. If they had, their nuclear facility, and oil terminals would be smoldering pieces of twisted metal. Which is, of course, what they will soon be like when the Israeli Air Force has finished with them. But wait, the Israeli Army didn't do well against Hezbollah rag head army last time, did it? Does anyone have the guts to stand up to Iran? What's wrong with western governments? The truth is probably more disturbing than we can contemplate. The British armed forces have been so run down and weakened by spineless politicians that they can't even fight one war, never mind two. The US armed forces are vastly superior in numbers and equipment, but they can only fight one war at a time since good ol' Bill Clinton decimated them. So, practically, there's not much anyone can, or will do, against Iran, even though they and Syria probably sponsor more terrorist groups than the rest of the world put together.
How sad it is that the school playground bully gets his own way, when all it needs is for the rest of the kids, or the strongest, or bravest,to stand up to him and they could beat the crap out of his pathetic skin.
One last thought, were the Brits under orders to cave in the the Iranians and just do what they said? If not, whatever happened to "'Name rank and number' only, I'm a British officer, and I don't care how much you threaten me, I won't tell lies and grovel to you snotbags just get home sooner." Perhaps these servicemen and woman should talk to some WWII veterans, especially those who survived being captured in Burma by the soulless Japanese.
God help us if our nations in the West are threatened by Iran or any other of the pothead dictators out there. Are there any brave young men and women in the UK? If there are, and I am sure there are many, they have been done a great disservice by these grovelers. At least those fighting on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan are showing showing themselves to be mostly brave and courageous, and are doing their stuff, whether they are completely sold on the cause or not.

Back from the Caribbean

Well, made it back from Antigua, even saw Eric Clapton's house, and the famous Crossroads Center where Brittany Spears checked in and lasted 24 hours before bailing out. Sounds like her marriage, as our catamaran captain remarked. Now I'm lobster red and serpent like in my skin peeling, I must say I'm feeling very refreshed. If it takes what my wife and I did, i.e. lounge around and be waited on hand and foot for seven days and nights to be refreshed, so be it. It was a special treat for our tenth anniversary. I was thinking a lot while away about liberties and the like and was thinking......do we trust the Jack Bauers to dispense justice for us on their terms, or do we go by the letter of the law? But wait a minute; laws are made by people who do what they think is best for the nation. Is the only difference "checks and balances", or are they the same? Perhaps accountability is the answer. Who are the Jack Bauers accountable to? Well, no-one, it seems. Of course in real life, those of us who have worked in law enforcement (like I did for 22+ years) know that doing the arrest, or operation is the easy part, and the paperwork, lawyers meetings, evidence gathering, witness interviews, consultations and reviews with senior officers and more can take literally several months. This is of course why 24 jumps a year or two between episodes. In that time Jack and his buddies have been writing reports, statements and have been at court hearings. The reason why Jack Bauer doesn't exist in most of real life is that accountability brings with it the need to explain and justify every action. This is why terrorists are so successful. They just meet together, hatch up some nefarious plot over a snack and a hookah and then get some money from a sympathizer. They then just do their mission and don't care how many of them die, or others die, in the process. In Burma in World War II, the British Army suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese in the early part of the war. The British commanding officers got together. How did they lose? Well, the Japanese soldiers were ruthless and fearless, and showed total contempt for human life, their own, and their enemies. The British decided to train their troops to be even more ruthless than the Japanese, and that's how they defeated them. Whatever the Japanese soldiers did, the British did back to the Japanese, with steroids. The Japanese eventually wilted. Is there a lesson for us there with modern day terrorists? I personally think there is.

The Rabbi