Uh-oh:

BRITAIN'S crisis with Iran deepened yesterday as Tony Blair warned Tehran it has only a few days to release 15 captured British sailors and marines, as a US commander in the Gulf criticised the British for not opening fire on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who seized them.

It will be interesting to see what Tony Blair's warning will come to mean. Will Britain attack Iran if their troops are not released in "a few" days? Unlikely, and the nutsos running Iran know it.

Iran rebuffs Blair's plea for release of captives:

The Iranian Foreign Minister accused a group of captured British servicemen last night of having committed an act of "aggression", only hours after Tony Blair appealed for their release.

"The charge against them is their illegal entrance into Iranian territorial waters," Manouchehr Mottaki, the Foreign Minister, told a press conference in New York.

I was happy to read that Americans might've handled the situation differently. I often worry that our kid-glove approach to this war, and our constant worry about hurting the feelings of our enemies, will lead us to not take action when appropriate. Lieutenant Horner assures me this is not so:

Lieutenant Commander Erik Horner, second-in-command on the USS Underwood in the Gulf, said: "I don't want to second-guess the British after the fact, but our rules of engagement allow a little more latitude. Our boarding team's training is a little bit more towards self-preservation.

"The unique US Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self-defence but also an obligation to self-defence.

"They had every right, in my mind, every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken. Our reaction was, 'Why didn't your guys defend themselves?"'

Asked whether the men under his command would have fired at the Iranians, Commander Horner said: "Agreed. Yes."

Karol Sheinin loves poker, hip-hop, rightwinging in New York City and staying up late. She regularly blogs at Alarming News. She does not like candlelit dinners and moonlight strolls on the beach.