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Right-wingers in US, British and German politics have to deal with trouble ahead. While the ‘coalition of the willing’ was and seems to still be unable to win the hearts and minds of Arab people¹, it seems their main foe, Iran, is doing quite a good job. The Iran had captured 15 british soldiers, which it said were sailing in it’s own territories. Two days ago, in a surprising move, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had the 15 soldiers released. Now, it seems that Iran has reached the hearts and minds of many Westerners by doing that.

Reading in my favorite Iran-related Blog from the Author and Journalist (Teheran) Martin Ebbing I found this comment:

Für mich ist es jedenfalls beeindruckend, wie souverän der Iran dieser Tage auftritt. Die ganze Affäre um die 15 Soldaten stinkt jedenfalls zum Himmel… Also ist mein Fazit: Die waren eindeutig im Iran und nun haben die Briten dem Iran eine schöne Bühne bereitet. Der Iran konnte der Weltöffentlichkeit zeigen, wie human man mit illegalen Eindringlingen umgeht, und dass man durchaus bereit ist, nach einer Entschuldigung, die Sache friedlich zu beenden. …ganz im Gegensatz zu den US-geführten Truppen im Irak, Afghanistan, usw.

I’m impressed by how sovereign Iran behaves these days. Anyhow, the whole affair around the 15 soldiers stinks to high heaven… My bottom line is this: They were clearly in Iran and now the British have given Iran a nice stage. Iran was able to show the world public, how one behaves humanely with illegal intruders, and that they are ready - given a simple apology - to resolve the affair peacefully. …in contrast to what the US-led troops do in Iraq and Afghanistan etc.

The commentator isn’t alone. Browsing through the German bloggosphere one can find many comments about how well Iran has handled the crisis. “Der Spiegelfechter” published a pretty detailed article about the release of the soldiers:

Gestern war ein guter Tag. Ein guter Tag für die britischen Seeleute, ein guter Tag für den Nahen Osten und auch ein guter Tag für Großbritannien.

[...]

Zu Beginn der Krise setzte Blair auf die altunbewährte Strategie des arroganten Kolonialherren, der dem unzivilisierten Iraner zeigt, wo der Hammer hängt. Blair lamentierte von einer “härteren Gangart”, liess sich von seinen Freunden (wie immer, unglaublich unsouverän Angela Merkel) ihres Kadavergehorsams versichern, rief den UN-Sicherheitsrat ein (was ihm die bedächtigen Russen schnell wieder austrieben) und inszenierte ein Schmierentheater mit gefakten Karten.

Yesterday was a good day. A good day for the british sailors, a good day for the middle east and also a good day for Great Britain.

[...]

At the beginning of the crisis, Blair had banked on the unapproved strategy of an arrogant colonial master, showing the uncivilized Iranians how they should behave. Blair spoke of a harsher pace [with Iran], was then backed by his Friends (as always, unbelievably sovereign Angela Merkel), called upon the UN security council (which the cautious Russians were sure to expel) and orchestrated a second-rate theater with faked cards.

While the Iranian president himself wasn’t able to polish his image in the West, Iran in general is now viewed more differentiated than before the crisis. Still, the media machinery will still be able to draw that old black and white image, we are used to. I do hope many see through it!

The only problem at the end of the day is that neither on this side² nor on the Iranian side are the people really in power when it comes to foreign policy. Recently, the German president Horst Köhler while addressing the Iraqis, who captured a German woman and her son said in a video message:

Es gibt kein politisches Ziel, das die Entführung oder die Tötung unschuldiger Menschen rechtfertigt. Keine Religion erlaubt ein solches Verhalten. Ich wende mich jetzt direkt an Sie, die Entführer. Ich appelliere an Sie, Frau Krause und ihren Sohn umgehend freizulassen. Im Irak ist schon zu viel unschuldiges Blut vergossen worden. Halten Sie ein, geben Sie die Geiseln ihren Familien zurück!

There is no political ends, that justify the kidnapping or killing of innocent people. No religion allows such a behavior. I now address you, the captors, directly. I appeal to you to release Mrs. Krause and her son immediately. Enough blood has already been spilled in Iraq. Stop and return the hostages to their families.

When i heard that speech, my first thought was that he could have been addressing the US administration concerning Guantanamo-inmates (where was that speech concerning Murat Kurnaz or other inmates that were kidnapped and held without charge?). But taking the speech at face value, would it not stand a reason that western governments should abide by those words and think twice about attacking Iran (or any other state for that matter) and stop promoting a military solution to their political games with Iran? Or are morals only used, when it comes to muslims using force?

It seems to be a common path to ask of muslims (and ‘rogue’ (muslim) states³ ) to deescalate and give up any military means while in fact the majority of western countries are building up as if preparing for a world war. How convenient..

1. ‘how could they win their hearts and minds, when they leave their hearts at one place and their minds at another.. (i think this is a quote by Volker Pispers) [↩]
2. Germany, Great Britain, USA etc [↩]
3. as in ‘not pro-western’ [↩]