“The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. … No nation attacks us directly or our allies because they know that is the path to ruin,” President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address on January 12.

Only hours before Obama made that statement, Iran seized two U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Persian Gulf and took 10 U.S. Navy sailors hostage. The U.S. sailors were made to drop to their knees before the barrel of a gun and apologize on film for “trespassing” into Iranian waters.

“All the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air,” the president continued. “Well so is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker.” He said this even as Iran was humiliating the U.S. Navy!

Notice how Reuters reported on the incident: “The drama in the Gulf, which the U.S. government had initially hoped to keep under wraps, became public knowledge just hours before President Barack Obama was due to give his annual State of the Union address in Congress” (emphasis added throughout). The Obama administration initially tried to cover it up! Then, after it became public knowledge, the official story became that the Iranians were actually trying to help the sailors.

“The Iranians picked up both boats, as we have picked up Iranian boats that needed to be rescued,” Vice President Joe Biden told cbs the day after the incident. Then Iran released the sailors “like ordinary nations would do. That’s the way nations should deal with one another. That’s why it’s important to have channels open,” Biden said. When asked whether the U.S. apologized to Iran, Biden answered: “No, there was no apology, there was nothing to apologize for. … And there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.”

Standard nautical practice carried out by an “ordinary” nation? Then why were the sailors arrested, held at gunpoint and forced to apologize on camera?

“It was a mistake; that was our fault, and we apologize for our mistake,” one sailor told an Iranian television reporter.

But according to the Obama administration and the major media, because the U.S. sailors were released the next day, this whole ordeal proved that diplomacy works! White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “We’re obviously pleased that the Iranians followed through on their commitment to promptly allow our sailors to continue their journey. We’re appreciative of the key role that Secretary Kerry played in securing the outcome. I do think it underscores the value of diplomatic line of communication that’s been opened between Secretary Kerry and his counterpart.”

The fact that these videos of U.S. soldiers on their knees and making public apologies to Iran will now be used as a propaganda tool for many years to come doesn’t seem to bother anyone representing the current U.S. administration.

After the sailors were publicly humiliated and then released, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry actually thanked Iran! “I think we can all imagine how a similar situation might have played out three or four years ago. In fact, it is clear that today, this kind of issue is able to be peacefully resolved, and officially resolved, and that is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure and strong,” Kerry said.

(Listen to Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry discuss this development in greater detail on the Trumpet Daily Radio Show.)

So Iran films the armed arrest, gets a public apology from the seamen and then a hugethank you from the U.S. Secretary of State!

Also remarkable was Secretary Kerry’s statement about how differently this type of incident would have played out a few years ago. As it happens, a few years ago, there was an incident similar to this involving Britain’s Royal Navy.

In 2007, Iran surrounded 15 British sailors at sea, prompting the Royal Navy to immediately surrender. In negotiating their release, Britain did everything imaginable not to escalate tensions. Then there was the shameful spectacle in front of tv cameras where British soldiers were made to apologize. Then, after their release from captivity, British officials rushed to claim victory for “diplomacy”!

Speaking of the episode in 2007, Trumpet writer Joel Hilliker wrote, “The view that the affair validates the superiority of pursuing peaceful resolutions with Iran to provocative ones ignores the fact that Iran committed an act of war against Britain (and, by extension, the United Nation, and the European Union and nato, all of which are supposed to help when a member state like Britain is attacked), and paid no price for doing so. … It fails to acknowledge just how much momentum such an event gives to the forces of radicalism sweeping the Middle East and beyond.”

And what did the United States learn from Britain’s shameful capitulation in 2007? That if you surrender with out a fight and quickly offer profuse public apologies, and then praise and thank the captors for being kind and merciful, then your chances of coming out alive are much greater!

Never mind the fact that these kinds of weak and fearful responses only serve to embolden the enemy! And never mind what it says about the United States and Britain—that the pride in their power has been totally broken (Leviticus 26:19).

In his 2007 article, Hilliker referred to another prophecy that pertains to these two embarrassing defeats for the U.S. and Britain—the king of the south’s “push” against the king of the north (Daniel 11:40). Iran’s growing power, he said, will repeatedly push to the point that it finally provokes world war. “Considering Iran’s stated ambitions—to become a nuclear power and to eliminate the State of Israel, for starters—the Islamic Republic, unless it is stopped, is on a course to start a war,” he wrote. But Iran will only be able to push so far before it will finally provoke a response. This decisive response, however, clearly will not come from Britain or America.