I understand the 15 Royal Navy personnel will be paraded before the British media this afternoon. They will also apparently be doing one on one interviews. What possible good can come of this? The Royal Navy should not be dancing to the media's tune. They should heed the words of the Westlife hit, 'You say it best, when you say nothing at all'.
UPDATE: Apparently it was Ronan Keating, rather than Westlife. All sound the same to me!
33 comments:
These excuses for Marines & matelots should be paraded through Pompey & Plymouth in ignominy before discharge into civil life.
I will not enter into what should & ought to be done to the Admirals & the ships master.
Lt. Col. Hasler, Marine Spark & RSM Lord MUST be turning in their Grave at the disgraceful conduct of these excuses of fighting men.
On this occasion I must disagree with you Iain. It is important they repudiate what they said as hostages.
Tim, I see your point, but I think that can be done without it descending into a media scrum.
Westlife?? Wasn't it Ronan doing a cover of the old Keith Whitley song?
Are you referring to the 15 Lollipop men and lady. They are not worth a tot of rum between them. As for their commanders, they should be lined up and shot. Captain Nairac. He was a soldier and man. This lot clutching teir goody bags. Pass the sick bag.
If soldiers and sailors are used as customs and exise officers it should not be a surprise if they act in role and not as fighting men and women.
Had they been on combat duties they would have given a combative response; it is despicable to ask of them to act in one way and react in another.
All have been outstanding in their response to the situation in which they were placed by their orders and their political leaders.
It was embarrassing, looked more like a works outing.They must not be allowed anywhere near a television studio or a newspaper office.
As I understand it, the crew are free to make the choice as to whether or not they make statements to the media.
I'm sure they'll use their professional judgement and discretion when making such a decision, although I think it important that any such interviews or statements are done appropriately.
I don't blame them one bit, do you really think Blair cared about them at all? Governments lie, go to war on lies infact, what's wrong with a few servicepeople doing it to save them selves a few years of Islamic porridge. Wise up, British values are long gone, Blair sets the tone for Britain.
The Iranians must not be forgiven.
If Tony Blair has any brains, he would order the covert assasination of military commanders in Iran. If Iran wants to play games, we should join in the fun.
Quite agree, Iain. Least said, soonest mended.
Meanwhile CHANGE "rules of engagement" & get in some target practice.
Whichever way you look at it Britain has been diminished.
It is also very obvious we have caught the American disease of making ourselves emotional hostages to anyone who kidnaps one of our citizens. The media are responsible for this.
Every British passport holder travelling in the world is now a target for those who want to gain similar publicity. (Though strange the BBC is quiet about its reporter who has been held hostage in Gaza.)
This is in part the harvest of Tony Blair playing the public over the Death of Diana.
Certainly every member of the crew taken hostage should receive a formal review of their actions. They were certainly of a lower standard than many might have hoped. No medals on this occasion - and no heroism is apparent, based on the information in the public domain.
It is precisely the PC attitude expressed by "Hatfield Girl" that we & the middle east is in the "STATE" it is in!
If these Tossers were not "on Duty" as servicemen, WHY were they ARMED,and wearing a Green Beret.
As Rickey Tomlinson would say. "Marines my Arse"!!
Drake singed the King of Spain's Beard. Lucky for Tony he is beardless. Have the Iranian's made a gift of the inflatables and weapons captured with the 15?
15 Naval personnel return in disgrace in BA Business Class with goody bags.....
4 Army personnel return with Honour in RAF Transport Freight Class in body bags......
The Senior Service.... your having a laugh.
I agree with you Iain, it was wrong for Iran to parade these guys in front of the media so how can it be right for us to do the same thing?
I think the RN would be far better explaining how they allowed this to happen. Where was the helecopter ?
Why did we not have patrol boats with heavy machine guns to protect the fast craft.
Many questions but no answers.
We cannot legitimately comment on the behaviour of the captives unless we are told what training they were given. They may have been trained to befreind their captors. Sounds rum, but I wouldn't know what the Navy gets up to nowadays.
It's a touch of out of the frying pan into the fire. The unfortunate service men got spun by the Iranians. Now Blair wants his turn.
Why don't you read what I wrote? Colin D.
I said don't use troops as civilians. And if you do, don't be surprised if they carry out their orders.
Keep your PC insults for your Labour party friends.
The army, navy and airforce of the United Kingdom is a nuclear-armed fighting force. It is not intended to be a peace-keeping body even if in extremis it can be called to the aid of the civil power within the UK .
What has been shown in the last 14 days is a demonstration of Labour ambivalence and deep fractures within Labour , on the role of the UK military. This has placed our fighting forces repeatedly (not just this incident but in the Balkans too) in terrible harm's way and, to add insult to injury, led to accusations of improper response on the part of our troops.
If Labour and its supporters want a peace-keeping force and not what is currently constituted they need to reconcile the faction fighting within their own coalition of members and activists . It is Labour's political cowardice and failure to resolve whose support they will accept, and their failure to provide appropriate back-up and equipment for what is currently being asked of our troops
that puts British troops at unacceptable risk.
I quote from the News.
The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, said that he believed they had behaved with "considerable dignity and a lot of courage"
He only said this as he doesn’t know the meaning of words like, whinging & whining
Yeh right you?? somebody give me the correct verb, please.
Nothing that we have done in the Gulf recently makes any sense whatsoever, but to try to understand you have to start with Bliar and the lies he used and Howard 'fell for'. If nobody else apart from the Neocons understands what this is all really about, why should service personnel be any different? It must be extremely demoralising for them to be in the position of daily risking their lifes without understanding what for. For Democracy, For Oil, for Israel, For brain-addled Bush can't think of a way of extracting without losing face? Certainly not for the Defence of the Realm.
By parading the RN personnel in front of the media, Bliar yet again demonstrates, not so much his immorality but his amorality.
Since the demise of Thatcher, there has been a moral vacuum at the top.
Hatfield Girl: please enlighten me? Who are my labour party friends??
I quote your second paragraph, perhaps like me you have limited vocabulary.
"Had they been on combat duties they would have given a combative response; it is despicable to ask of them to act in one way and react in another". My point is very simple, if you are armed with live ammo, you shoot when challenged bu hostile forces. No can I have your gun please mate, oh alright I'll come quietly.
Iain
Perhaps you are the one who should say nothing at all on the matter. You've done yourself no credit here.
This has turned into a tedious media circus with the Whitehall ringmaster cracking the whip as usual. This is not an opportunity for PR rather a genuine case for concern for reasons that have been aired ad nauseam. I'm half expecting to see them pop up at No.10 with the Beloved Leader for tea etc. But even he is too embarrassed to be seen with them.
Coming soon, no doubt, the BBC dramatisation "Hail the Surrendering Heroes Come" seen through the eyes of Faye Turney the plucky female sailor who battles career and child care 'issues'. Given that the Beeb likes to bash our armed services its only a matter of time before some such bollocks is aired.
If you think they had it tough spare a thought for Ron Arad an Israeli air force pilot shot down in 1986 over the Lebanon and suspected to be in Iranian custody ever since.
They should heed the words of the Westlife hit, 'You say it best, when you say nothing at all'.
I feel they should have been better trained to heed these words through the entire affair. any criticism that comes their way for 'confessing' should not be aimed at the sailors but our training methods.
I have just watched the interview, and I think it was right that they should have been given the right of reply. Especially to some of the 'cowboys' who have posted here who have been watching too many 1950's war movies. There are some glaring holes in what they have said, especially on why the Lynx disappeared, without telling them, why they could not raise the Cornwall. Raedwald has kindly posted on my blog, his assesment of the draft that the Cornwall pulls in those waters. The Iranians clearly acted in a piratical fashion and should be placed on notice that approaching within one nautical mile will be treated as an hostile act and they will be fired on, once may be and accident, twice is carelessness their should be no third time.
Finally- how do you equate a Boy band with all this ??
What of the equipment on those captures RIBs ? Anything secret in the way of comms or navigation gear on them ?
Colin D said...
Hatfield Girl: please enlighten me? Who are my labour party friends??
I am very,very short of friends on this forum and I'll be your Labour party friend if you like ?
No-one should be saying anything until the outcome of the court martial. There will be a court martial, won't there? And if not, why not?
Thanks Mick. I am so very disparate for a "friend". Have a nice easter and enjoy yourself. I'm off to party with the family & any friend who may turn up.
PS. The wife's coming, so I'm already one down!
PPS It's for grown ups as well?
I admire your astonishing knowledge and use of literary quotes in support of this post.
But the naysayers must remember; One doesn'tu know know what it is like until one is in the situation, or to quote the Sugababes:-
We talk about the places that we intend to be
But if we were there would you be you
And baby would I be me?
Taking the Queen's uniform means standing for something - not offering abject surrender to the first gang of greasy terrorists who happen to be passing."The 15" are cowards who should get back to their frock shops in civvie street. And the Captain of HMS Cornwall should wipe the floor clean as he leaves - you are supposed to look after your people. What a gang of incompetents - no wonder Iraq is like it is.
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