Neo-con in a snit over return of British sailors

Sometimes the marine layer floats east from the Pacific making usually sunny SoCal look more like the great northwest. Such is the dull grey morning to which I woke up here in Pasadena.

On such days sometimes I have trouble getting my snark on sufficient to bless you with my words of wisdom.

But have no fear, your CaliBlogger's found his remedy. When struck with the bloggy blues, I need only read the latest bit of well-phrased idiocy from someone who is quickly becoming my favorite neo-con shill, Charles Krauthammer.

Today Chuckles is up in arms, like many a neo-con warmonger on this (for them) saddest of days, over the release of 15 British sailors detained by Iran for allegedly trespassing into Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

Apparently for Chuckles, the entire incident signals the fall (once again) of western civilization.

Iran has pulled off a tidy little success with its seizure and release of those 15 British sailors and marines: a pointed humiliation of Britain, with a bonus demonstration of Iran's intention to push back against coalition challenges to its assets in Iraq. All with total impunity. Further, it exposed the impotence of all those transnational institutions -- most prominently the European Union and the United Nations -- that pretend to maintain international order.

Of course what he's really upset about is that the Brits have let, what seems to him anyway, a clear casus belli slip through their fingers.

You can bet that if Charles was in charge and some Americans had been picked up in like fashion we wouldn't be engaging in all this pansy "quiet diplomacy". Nosiree, you can bet some sabres would be rattled, along with windowpanes in Tehran.

And sure, that might result in a shooting war, the deaths or continued captivity of the sailors themselves, as well as the deaths of American pilots and an untold number of Iranian civilians.

But hey, to the Krauthammers of the world, no price is too high to wipe that annoying smirk off Ahmadinejad's face.

As long as someone else is paying it that is.