Say Thanks, You Ungrateful Brits

You've almost got to give this guy style points for sheer audacity.

Say thank you, says hostage taker’s brother

The London-based brother of the Iranian general who personally ordered the kidnapping of the 15 servicemen in the Shatt al-Arab waterway condemned Britain’s ingratitude after their release last week.

Salman Rahim Safavi, an academic and brother of Major-General Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said: “We sent the boys back as a gift to the British people and Tony Blair didn’t even say thank you.”

Safavi, who is in close contact with his brother in Iran, warned that the Tehran leadership has been angry about British reaction since the hostages arrived home and hinted at a tougher response in future.

He said in his first interview: “Tony Blair is unfair. Only a day after we released his soldiers Blair denounced Iran and described us as a country that supports terrorism. This is unacceptable.

“Blair is just like George W Bush. After we cooperated with America in Afghanistan against the Taliban, Bush called us part of the axis of evil.”

So let's get this straight. You kidnap the sailors in Iraqi waters, parade them around for two weeks, realize the game is up, send them home, and they should say thanks? The scary thing is, there are probably a lot of Brits who agree with this maniac.

Meanwhile, the frightened fifteen may be cashing in (via LGF).

Ridiculous.

Mark Steyn is not amused by any of this:

Tony Blair was at pains to point out that the hostages were released ''without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature.'' But he's missing (or artfully sidestepping) the point: Tehran didn't want a deal. It wanted the humbling of the Great Satan's principal ally. And it got it. Very easily. And it paid no price for it. And it has tested in useful ways the empty pretensions of the U.N., the EU and also NATO, whose second largest fleet is now a laughingstock in a part of the world where it helps to be taken seriously.

Read the rest.

More Iran items, in particular, Fred Thompson blogging at Red State, at Riehl World View, Captain's Quarters, Six Meat Buffet, EU Referendum.