The Iranian Hostages - it gets worse

A little while ago, I wrote a piece agreeing with my colleague Toby Harnden's assessment of the behaviour of the fifteen captured sailors and Marines.

The British servicemen did not defend themselves and then rather than giving name, rank and serial number allowed themselves to be used as pawns in a propaganda game.

This week I have learned more details of the capture.

The fifteen servicemen were captured by just six, yes, six Iranians. Could they have avoided capture? Certainly - they had more than double the personnel of the Iranians. The Britons were also armed.

Now Private Eye reveals that they were captured because thanks to some top brass's ego, a publicity stunt went wrong.

The 15 servicemen have let us down

As I have said before I am glad that the 15 sailors and Marines are home safely. However, they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory since their return. By selling their stories they have demeaned their uniform.

My colleague Toby Harnden writes an excellent article about this on his blog. He says: "Lasting damage has been done to Britain's reputation, never mind that of the RN and Royal Marines...Servicemen and women should be held to a higher standard than civilians, though listening to the six of the 15 who spoke on their return it was hard to believe these were military personnel...Why did many of the 15 believe it was appropriate to greet the news of their release with giddy excitement, grins, waves, back-slapping and grovelling gratitude to President Ahmadinejad?...Why were the 15 apparently unprepared for what was mild mistreatment and some fairly basic mind games?"

Toby is absolutely right.

Finally, I had always assumed I would never suit a military career: I am too fat for a start. Having seen the pictures of Leading Seaman Faye Turney, I am not so sure. Fit is not the word...