BRITISH MARINES GET RIPPED BY STAY-AT-HOME HEROES: WALK A MILE IN THEIR COMBAT BOOTS
OK, there wasn't a lot of John Wayne or even Alec Guiness in this last round of Iranian captive time. I get that. But they're home. They're not dead. The only pain now being inflicted upon them is by self-appointed Prisoner Conduct Analysts. Some American of my era is saying the Royal Marines were a "disgrace" and "everybody I know" thinks so. Maybe he needs new friends. A bunch of drunken pub crawlers with bad teeth agree, on the BBC, no less.
First, when the Crown fights a war, it's the Scots who fight and die so I'm not looking in London for experts on heroism. Second, the captivity pressures are different today so the resistance techniques that are taught have to be more adaptive. Third, nobody knows how he or she would react until he or she is THERE. Even POW training camp can warp your mind like you wouldn't believe. Fourth, and this is essentially new, captors have a new weapon to use against mixed groups of detainees, gender, and it is a powerful weapon! Fifth, the economics are much different now. The military has so much money tied up in a fighting person, the person literally owes a duty to try to return to service and not wind up dead on a cell floor.
Let's take it in order. If you are whacking on these folks and you didn't serve, bite me! Sit there in your wife-beater shirt with the Cheeto stains and opine all you want. Never mind you're taking up valuable oxygen that a productive person could be using.
If you were a POW and you find their conduct distasteful, please try to understand that the nature of warfare has forever been changed by nuclear proliferation, technology and the evolution of interrogation and mind control techniques. John Wayne has left the building. Thank you for your service and bravery but please grasp that these people are not taught "Name, Rank and serial number." They are taught "SRE" (Survive Resist and Extract--U.S. Survive Resist and Escape--UK). The techniques for the S and the R are situational. Papillon has also left the building.
Chuck Norris is on Medicare and Sylvester Stallone belongs to AARP. Stuff Changes. Deal with it.
Royal Marines, glad you're home. Hug your families. Live Well.
Labels: IRAN AND RELATED CLUSTERS
posted by UMRBlog @ 15:42
16 comments
16 Comments:
I am glad that the powder keg didn't blow . I really do not think the main powers at be ran this op . I think the Mid east went 2 steps back from the BRINK right there.
But Geo Political egg on the face may spark the next "Whose water is this" into a full fledge Naval war .
Hopes calm cool heads prevail .
Glad those BLOKES are home !
( maybe them naming their boat SPARTA --pissed off the persains )
Good Speak Tony. They are home and safe two weeks after capture. We are not at war, at least not yet, with Iran. In a few days any diplomatic victories or defeats claimed by the British and Iran will be forgotten old news. But those sailors will be alive and well. That was the most important thing to come out of this.
Could not have said it any better, Excellent piece!
Thanks UMR - everyone should be told "tell them everything" " do the press conference". Its not like people at this level have military secrets anyway. I love John McCain but for he and his buddies to get beaten the way they did is awful - particularly as the war had passed them by. The big thing is putting that girl in a scarf - every American woman needs to understand that would happen to them if Islam took over America. Can we arresst Nanct Pelosi for treason - she is a disgrace 0 hope she loses her position over this.
O-
Thank you. If we are not at war yet, it's not cuz uncle Dick and the neocolonialists are not trying.
TYFCB
I would be happy that my children returned safely. Then I would wonder how, I never knew them.
Those smiling happy cheerful people in the photo gave their captives just what they wanted. They rewarded them for committing an act of war against Great Britain. They Rewarded the Iranians for kidnapping them.
I would hope mine would stand up for themselves.
0925--
the "Girl" was the wild card that made captivity harder for everyone. We're really not trained up to work around chivalry yet. It's a difficult thing. I know it's a politically incorrect thing to say but in happens to be another of those inconvenient troofs and unintended consequences.
TYFCB
The fact of the matter is that the "hostages" by and large, cooperated with their captors.
Let's remember that these aren't (supposed to be) your average bank customer caught in a bank robbery gone wrong. These people are supposed to trained military. They were involved in a military operation that had risk. Their conduct, especially the officers and the female sailor, is completely unacceptable. Period.
Frankly, none of the US military people I've talked to about this, both currently active and vets and all combat vets, would have been taken without a shot fired. They are throughly disgusted with the conduct of the Brit sailors and Marines.
1254,
Nobody here called them hostages.
I have a lot of problems with the patrol configuration of this mission but I don't criticize the captain for concluding that resistance was futile.
Their conduct in captivity was permissible under SRE. I've already dealt with the "Everybody I know" argument. I submit you're holding these guys to a standard of heroism when their own military rules hold them to the minimum standards of SRE.
In essence you are saying, "I would have preferred it if.....". That's aspirational and I can understand it.
I've never been a real POW but I've been through Mock POW Camp. Sudden captivity, situational switching, isolation and sensory deprivation will "unheroic" one in a hell of hurry. Let's not hold anybody up to standard we're not sure we perhaps could meet.
TYFCB
1251,
So I guess you would have been happier if they "stood up" and you got their ears in your mailbox by certifiend mail.
You seem to saying "Some things are worth OTHER PEOPLE dying for."
While I disagree vehemently with your position, TYFCB
One thing to keep in Mind !
Kartum and the last time the QUEEN took a black eye. Took a few years but the Brits came back and slaughtered the Dervishes in the 10's of thousands.
The Queen doesn't like her military to make an opps . If I was Haji the persian I would not try that trick pony again.
1352.
That's a fair point. I'd look for it to be @ sea. Iran has the world's sixth largest standing army but not a pimple on a real navy's ass.
TYFCB
You seem to saying "Some things are worth OTHER PEOPLE dying for."
You seem to be saying that only those in the military can support military operations. If you supported invading Afghanistan, I doubt you mean that you would be there to do the fighting yourself.
0733,
I don't know where you see that. the previous writer was imposing his or her values on the folks who happened to be POW's. I never said someone who supports a war must volunteer for military service.
On a personal level, I already did my war. Don't think the US military has any place for my knees and ankles.
TYFCB
10:06
I agree! A post is needed! This whole Imus thing reeks of "I'm offended, therefore I am." No one ever complains when poor white people are called rednecks, crackers, white trash, etc. What about all the black rappers calling women "hos"? Eddie Murphy was the one who put the "ho" term into the vernacular, blame him.
We're just way too offendable anymore. Imus was just trying to be hip,and yes, he goofed, but not that bad.
1006, 1128
"Nappy?" He said "Nappy?"
I thought the said "Knappy" and it was some kind of Republican, Truck Bed inside baseball thing?
TYFCB
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