Chief Pedant - as I understand it, the Iranian forces didn’t just pop up and say “give us your vessel”; they said “you made a mistake and entered our territorial waters.”
To take a recent example, when Switzerland accidentally invaded Liechtenstein (bbc.co.uk), if a policeman from Liechtenstein had showed up and told the brave Swiss fighting men “you need to follow me to the nearest police station and explain yourselves”, I think the right behaviour would be for the soldiers to obey the orders of the representative of the law in the country in which they unwittingly found themselves, rather than overpowering him and running off. When I say the right behaviour I don’t just mean morally correct, I mean the behaviour consistent and conforming to military codes of conduct.
If they weren’t at war, then obviously they were in no danger of being killed, were they?
I’ve been wondering, here - where was their chain of command in all this? Did they radio in as soon as the Iranians showed up? Did they wait for orders? Did they actually receive an order to surrender - or did they receive an order not to surrender?
I wonder what happened, too. All though I can’t imagine Hornblower letting his people be captured, I’m sure things were done properly; it is after all the Royal Navy.
Anyway, it’s not often that I’m totally, 100% right, but in this case I am. The Beeb just interviewed Max Clifford on the radio, and he is indeed representing some of the sailors.
Christ alive. I’m not big on patriotism and all that, but this whole thing is making me ashamed to be British. I fail to see how “the story will get out anyway” justifies the MoD appearing to endorse the ludicrous idea that the captured sailors are somehow heroes.
