"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy."- Winston Churchill, 1941

Clearly Iran thinks otherwise. The Iranian government is toying with Britain and Tony Blair, who needs to act in a decisive manner, soon. The notion of diplomacy is laughable. How does a country negotiate with another country that acts in such a blatantly disingenuous way?

While the pacifist optimists talk about how we should all be able to get along, the extremist Mullahs in Iran are laughing at the West. These Islamic fundamentalists know that many in the West have no backbone and will not fight to protect their soldiers. They believe that we Westerners do not have the will to fight for anything, for long. Increasingly, they seem to be correct.

So Britain ponders its options while the Iranians threaten to put the soldiers on trial and violate the Geneva Convention in numerous ways. There is no outcry from the American Left.

As Iran releases video of English soldiers explaining how they entered Iranian waters, the most important audience is the Iranian people. These people only know what their government tells them. They see these British soldiers admitting to entering Iranian waters and they are angry. They do not see these soldiers as victims, as hostages of their government. They do not think these statements are coerced.

The video of the Iranians throwing rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy says all we need to know.

If Churchill isn't turning over in his grave right now...