Kidnapped!

Well, well, well..., the British Left has decided where to place blame for Iran's kidnapping of fifteen British troops.

It's all America's fault... surprise!

The Independent charges that the hostage taking was reprisal for a "botched" American attempt ten weeks ago to kidnap senior Iranian officials who were for some reason in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Read it here.

But if that's the case, what do you make of this [hat tip Wretchard]?

Time reports on an apparent attempt last year by Iranian forces to take a US patrol hostage:

U.S. soldiers from the 5th Squadron 73rd Cavalry 82nd Airborne were accompanying Iraqi forces on a routine joint patrol along the border with Iran, about 75 miles east of Baghdad, when they spotted two Iranian soldiers retreating from Iraqi territory back into Iran. A moment later, U.S. and Iraqi forces came upon a third Iranian soldier on the Iraqi side of the border, who stood his ground. As U.S. and Iraqi soldiers approached the Iranian officer and began speaking with him, a platoon of Iranian soldiers appeared and moved to surround the coalition patrol, taking up positions on high ground. At that point, according to the Army's statement, the Iranian captain told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that if they tried to leave they would be fired on. Fearing abduction by the Iranians, U.S. troops moved to go anyway, and fighting broke out. Army officials say the Iranian troops fired first with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and that U.S. troops fell further back into Iraqi territory, while four Iraqi army soldiers, one interpreter and one Iraqi border guard remained in the hands of the Iranians.

The official release says there were no casualties among the Americans, and makes no mention of any on the Iranian side. U.S. soldiers present at the firefight, however, tell TIME that American forces killed at least one Iranian soldier who had been aiming a rocket-propelled grenade at their convoy of Humvees.

Read the whole thing here.

I'm sure that, given enough time, the Left will find something that they can present as a provocation to justify this earlier attempt at hostage-taking.

And so it goes....

UPDATE:

Ahmadinejad has announced that the hostages will be released. Guess kidnapping doesn't have the payoffs it used to have when he was a young man.