Thanks for Not Continuing to Kick My Crotch

Hey Brits! Remember how this guy just kidnapped you and then embarrassed your country like 5 minutes ago?

"This pardon is a gift to the British people," [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] said.

After the news conference, Iranian television showed a beaming Ahmadinejad on the steps of the presidential palace shaking hands with the Britons — some towering over him. The men were decked out in business suits and Turney wore an Islamic head scarf.

"Your people have been really kind to us, and we appreciate it very much," one of the British men told Ahmadinejad in English. Another male service member said: "We are grateful for your forgiveness."

Ahmadinejad responded in Farsi, "You are welcome."

Oh boy. What's the appropriate expression? SuperStockholm Syndrome? Meanwhile, somewhere in the print media masses, a hint of coherent analysis:

"[Iran is] so consumed with short-term issues -- how to undermine the West and how to gain leverage -- at the expense of long-term strategy. They have undermined themselves," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They're playing the immediate moves of checkers and not the long-term strategy of a chess game. In the long term, it undermines their ability to attract foreign investment and have good relations" with the outside world.

Yes, internal politics is forcing the foreign policy hand of the increasinly unpopular Mahmoud. Look for more irrational BS from a mega-petrol state starting....now.