Hee, no. If the Iranians were Fox News, the British sailors would have appeared on TV with a caption reading “British are scum?”
You know, the famous Fox question mark.
But…if the international boundary on those waters was never agreed upon between the governments of Iraq and Iran, then…what boundary was there?
It sounds like it’s a watery Kashmir.
What if there were no ready reinforcements available within 15 minutes, an hour, or more? We have no way of knowing what British naval assets were present in the immediate area of the captured gunboat.
Umm, because it was a little gunboat doing reconnaisance and didn’t expect Iranian intervention in disputed waters?
I’d rather suspect that an Iranian intervention had been envisionned (I can’t think this possibility could have been excluded by anybody with an ounce of common sense) and that they were not supposed to fight if it were to happen (this also seems to me to fall in the realm of common sense)
Wouldn’t it be shrinking, then?
And reconnaissance missions in a potentially hostile area is also what militaries do. Doesn’t mean they’re allowed to start an international incident in a very volatile political environment just to show that british militaries have balls.
Can you elaborate? Indeed, I don’t see what kind of damage has been done.
British ping-pong performance has become a laughingstock.
Indeed. The damage that would have been done had they started firing at each other would have been much, much worse.
Worse for the Brits in that instance. Unless there was a capable allied Naval force nearby, they were fucked if they fought, and they knew it, hence, surrender and subsequent parading of British military on TV.
Propaganda is a bitch.