Today's Must-Read: Steyn On Brit Sailors

Leave it to Mark Steyn to simultaneously take apart a subject so all its moving parts are clear, while blowing it up so its true significance is perceived. Such is the work he's done today on the British-Iranian standoff over the kidnapped Brits.

Lest I keep you from reading the whole thing, here are just a couple highlights:

The British ambassador to the U.N. had wanted the Security Council to pass a resolution ''deploring'' Iran's conduct. But the Russians objected to all this hotheaded inflammatory lingo about ''deploring,'' and so the Security Council instead expressed its ''grave concern'' about the situation. That and $4.95 will get you a decaf latte. Ask the folks in Darfur what they've got to show for years of the U.N.'s "grave concerns" -- heavy on the graves, less so on the concern.

And:

So we live today in a world of one-way sovereignty: American, British and Iraqi forces in Iraq respect the Syrian and Iranian borders; the Syrians and Iranians do not respect the Iraqi border. Patrolling the Shatt al-Arab at a time of war, the Royal Navy operates under rules of engagement designed by distant fainthearts with an eye to the polite fictions of "international law": If you're in a ''warship,'' you can't wage war. If you're in a ''destroyer,'' don't destroy anything. If you're in a "frigate," you're frigging done for.

There are even better snippets than those, and the sum total is more than the combined snippits. Mark Steyn continues as the benchmark for those of us who can't read news without our fingers aching for a keyboard.