He scored an own goal!
16/04/07 12:13 |
Personal
I must
confess to feeling some sympathy for the beleaguered
Defence secretary Des Browne. While I give him full
credit for standing up and taking full responsibility
for the misjudged decision to
allow
the 15 Navy captives to sell their stories to the
media, he made the fatal mistake of saying “the buck
stops here”. By doing so, he has, predictably,
allowed himself to be used as the complete fall guy
for the whole sorry episode.
If, as Tony Blair claimed yesterday, he (TB) had successfully brought the sailors home (in reality he didn't and had no idea they would be released until it was announced by the Iranian President as a gesture of goodwill) then it seems unlikely that the occupants of either No 10 or No 11 Downing Street would have been unaware of the decision being made at the MoD.
What seems more likely, is that after suffering the humiliation of witnessing the televised pictures of the 'captives' shown on Iranian TV, the UK government spin doctors saw a golden opportunity to 'hit back' at the Iranians and score a goal against them. This would have the added benefit of gaining backing for the anti Iranian stance being taken by both the UK and US governments.
Sadly, it backfired and a scapegoat had to be found.
Poor old Des Browne!!
If, as Tony Blair claimed yesterday, he (TB) had successfully brought the sailors home (in reality he didn't and had no idea they would be released until it was announced by the Iranian President as a gesture of goodwill) then it seems unlikely that the occupants of either No 10 or No 11 Downing Street would have been unaware of the decision being made at the MoD.
What seems more likely, is that after suffering the humiliation of witnessing the televised pictures of the 'captives' shown on Iranian TV, the UK government spin doctors saw a golden opportunity to 'hit back' at the Iranians and score a goal against them. This would have the added benefit of gaining backing for the anti Iranian stance being taken by both the UK and US governments.
Sadly, it backfired and a scapegoat had to be found.
Poor old Des Browne!!
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