For the most part, the BBC’s coverage of the kidnapping of fifteen British Marines has been surprisingly even-handed. The problem for the Corporation’s lefties comes not in the reporting of straight facts, but in the analysis that follows. Here’s BBC World Service Iran analyst Sadeq Saba, attempting to explain why the Mad Mullahs acted as they did:

The capture of 15 British Royal Navy personnel by Iranian forces in the Gulf comes at a time when Tehran feels it is under unprecedented international pressure.
The country is diplomatically isolated and feels under a constant and building US military threat.

This move is, of course, straight out of the either the leftist or the Islamofascist (no news on quite which team Sadeq Saba bats for) playbook — Both ideologies are fond of arguing that criticism of either a delinquent nation or individual will result in even more of the behaviour that drew said criticism in the first place. Thus, the reason fifteen British Marines are currently guests of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has, for Britain’s state broadcaster, less to do with off-the-scale Islamofascist insanity than it does with the reaction of saner nations (and, right now, that happens to be all other nations) to a country led by a man so deranged he worships a thousand-year-dead, well-leaping Imam.

This inversion of guilt and innocence is something Sadeq Saba seems quite keen on pushing down our throats. Thus, alongside the ‘US military threat’, we’re also treated to a lengthy discussion of Iranian diplomacy:

Earlier this month the UN Security Council passed a resolution against Iran over its nuclear programme.
Iranian diplomats worked very hard to convince some members of the council, such as South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar, to support Tehran’s case.

See? The bearded-crazies aren’t so bad! They tried to talk to us! If only we could just bring ourselves to accept apocalyptic, well-leaping Islamists who threaten to wipe fellow UN member-countries off the map, then all would be well!

But it failed, and the vote in favour of the resolution was unanimous, further convincing the Iranian leadership that they have few friends left at the UN and that diplomacy is not working in their favour.

Well, now, let’s be quite clear about this: by ‘diplomacy’, Sadeq means ‘rush to nuclear weapons while diplomatically threatening genocide against Israel’. To be blunt (or, at least, blunter than BBC can bring themselves to be), if you’re too crazy and too unstable to earn the support of even Russia or China, then it’s a safe bet no amount of diplomatic speech is going to fix your problems.

… So what to do? What to do? The BBC’s Sadeq knows. Blame Amerikkka:

Iran is now also militarily encircled by the US forces. American troops are based in almost every country bordering Iran - Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and Azerbaijan.

Bad Amerikkka! Bad! If only the Great Satan would allow the Mullahs to go nuclear, then this sort of thing just wouldn’t happen:

Iran has released a second letter apparently written by the only female member of the 15-strong Royal Navy crew it captured in the Gulf.
The letter, apparently signed by Leading Seaman Faye Turney, says she is being treated “well and humanely”.
It adds: “Isn’t it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?”

The Iranian scumbags have, of course, put Leading Seaman Turney to very good use over the last few days. After the first letter they forced her to write, there was the video appearance in Sharia-compliant headscarf and Sharia-compliant, GPS-defying admissions of ‘guilt’ … So how does Sadeq Saba square this behaviour with his line about the ‘diplomatic’ Mullahs?

It is not clear whether the capture of the British sailors and marines was premeditated or not, but the ayatollah’s comments could have given a green light to Revolutionary Guards to seize them.
If it was premeditated, the capture could be interpreted as an act of desperation by a government which feels isolated and threatened.

Got that? Maybe the Iranian’s didn’t mean to capture British troops. And if they did pre-plan the operation, well, then it’s All Our Fault for making them ‘desperate’.

Meanwhile, Leading Seaman Turney is being forced to ‘interpret’ the mad Mullahs’ ‘acts of desperation’ for all the world to see. And the BBC? Well, they’re trying to understand what goes on in the Islamofascist mind.

You know, as opposed to being sickened by it.

Said RottyPup @ 1:51 pm | Permalink   

1. I was dying to see what you’d have to say on this, and my wait was rewarded.

   It’s disgusting, it really is. And the EU just made some weird dictate which disallows any mention of the word “Islamist fundamentalist” and “terrorist”, and “jihad”.

   Comment by Cao — 3/30/2007 @ 8:03 pm

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2. […] The Iranian Hostage Crisis Redux continues, and the media continues to show their defeatist lefty rhetoric in dealing with the subject. Even foreign leftist outlets like the BBC are slamming the U.S. instead of Iran. Rottypup blogs at the Wide Awakes site about the BBC bias, and has this to say in response to an anti-American argument: This move is, of course, straight out of the either the leftist or the Islamofascist (no news on quite which team Sadeq Saba bats for) playbook — Both ideologies are fond of arguing that criticism of either a delinquent nation or individual will result in even more of the behaviour that drew said criticism in the first place. Thus, the reason fifteen British Marines are currently guests of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has, for Britain’s state broadcaster, less to do with off-the-scale Islamofascist insanity than it does with the reaction of saner nations (and, right now, that happens to be all other nations) to a country led by a man so deranged he worships a thousand-year-dead, well-leaping Imam. […]

   Pingback by Right on the Right » BBC Media Bias and Iran — 3/31/2007 @ 5:23 pm

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