Well, it’s all very nice that the sailors are back home, and apparently in good health, but now it’s over and everyone has smiled for the cameras and said how lovely it all is, there is a strange feeling that all is not as it should be. Rather like eating a sandwich with half the filling left out.
Tony Blair says that no deal was done with the Iranians, and although my natural instinct is not to believe a word he says, on this occasion I rather feel he was probably telling the truth. So, hip hip hooray, we got our sailors back without a drop of blood being shed! But a word or two about those sailors. After reading what they said at the press conference after their release, I have to wonder about the quality of today’s Royal Navy. They were tied up, hooded, kept in isolation. Yes, all very nasty but….. Don’t they receive any training at all in what to expect if they are captured by an enemy, especially an enemy who does not abide by the Geneva Convention? Watching them, I couldn’t help wondering how they would have fared in, say, Colditz or Changi. And as for not starting a fight they didn’t think they would win, it’s a good thing that wasn’t how people felt at Rorke’s Drift, or facing the Spanish Armada or even the Battle of Britain. Good thing the ship’s company of HMS Amethyst didn’t think that way. I also wonder whatever happened to name, rank and number only. At what point in their training were they told that it is acceptable to appear on the enemy’s television, spouting his propaganda? We must also ask if they really had to go drivelling on about Iranian generosity and thanking President Ahmadinejad for pardoning them for something they hadn’t done. Glad they’re home and all that, but this all left a very bad taste.
I suppose I am wondering why there was not a more robust response from the British side. Not with a military action to rescue our people, unless the Iranians had drawn the matter out an unacceptable length of time, but at least to ensure that there were consequences. I think that’s what bothers me most of all. In essence, what happened was that Iran kidnapped fifteen British citizens, held onto them for almost two weeks, imprisoned them in questionable conditions, then returned them and were actually thanked for it as though they had made a generous gesture. There will be no consequences for their crime, for that is what it was. There is nothing to deter them, or any other tinpot totalitarian state, from doing it again. I hate to use an annoying buzzword like closure, but in this affair there hasn’t been any.
Not everyone agrees with me. Damozel for example. Click here to read her view.
Nicholas,
Thanks for your comment on my TT-Winning the Lottery. Assemblying the bank managers is an inspired twist!
I agree wholeheartedly with your TT 'bans' - especially since it just took me 10 minutes and a broken fingernail to release Happy Feet, courtesy of the Easter Bunny.
Also must agree with your take on the Iranian prisoners. Something not right there. Very fishy. I feel like we're not hearing a HUGE chunk of the story.
Posted by: Wylie Kinson | April 08, 2007 at 09:05 AM