Humiliated? Or just "intellectual" dishonesty.

Shorter Charles Krauthammer: The fact that the British sailors were released via diplomatic means as opposed to launching a war means that the British are pussies and not the nation that once systematically ground brown people under its boot. Oh, and its the UN's fault.

Iran has pulled off a tidy little success with its seizure and release of those 15 British sailors and marines: a pointed humiliation of Britain, with a bonus demonstration of Iran's intention to push back against coalition challenges to its assets in Iraq. All with total impunity. Further, it exposed the impotence of all those transnational institutions -- most prominently the European Union and the United Nations -- that pretend to maintain international order.

You would think maintaining international order means, at least, challenging acts of piracy. No challenge here. Instead, a quiet capitulation.

As Robert Farley succinctly puts it, "Charles Krauthammer is a columnist because he couldn't manage to operate the Blizzard machine at Dairy Queen."

But, really, I don't quite recall the wingnut rage when a similar situation occurred almost six years to the day featuring different players.

George W. Bush's Remarks at the White House on April 11:

I'm pleased to be able to tell the American people that plans are underway to bring home our 24 American servicemen and women from Hainan Island. This morning, the Chinese government assured our American Ambassador that the crew would leave promptly. We're working on arrangements to pick them up and to bring them home. This has been a difficult situation for both our countries. I know the American people join me in expressing sorrow for the loss of life of a Chinese pilot. Our prayers are with his wife and his child. I appreciate the hard work of our Ambassador to China, Joseph Prueher, and his entire embassy team, who worked tirelessly to solve this situation. The American people, their families, and I are proud of our crew, and we look forward to welcoming them home. Thank you.

How humiliating, wouldn't you say, Chuck?.

Having vastly overplayed its hand on the Hainan Island incident, China was forced to accept a virtually worthless letter from the United States. Having demanded at the very highest level an apology -- indeed publicly trotting out President Jiang Zemin to make the demand -- all they got was the Letter of the Two Very Sorries.

The more ardent American globalists will complain that being the sole superpower means never having to say you're sorry. But these Two Very Sorries were meaningless.

We are very sorry about the death of the Chinese pilot. Well, when a sparrow falls in Shanghai, the United States and its people are also sorry. Our hearts are large. Big deal.

The other sorry was a carefully crafted expression of regret for the most minor and technical violation: the emergency landing at Hainan that was made without prior verbal permission from the Chinese side. This is the diplomatic equivalent of being involved in a head-on car crash that leaves the other guy dead, then expressing regret for having had a burned-out taillight.

And look who signed the letter. Not the president, not even the secretary of state, but the resident ambassador. Don't think the Chinese don't notice.

The worst thing in the letter for us is the largely overlooked line saying that "we appreciate China's efforts to see to the well-being of the crew." It would have been better not to express appreciation to people who held our people hostage for 11 days.

Nonetheless, this is a minor flaw. The real diplomatic issue was the apology for the main event, the collision. We gave nothing. The real strategic issue was continuing American spy flights around China. We gave nothing.