Did The UK Somehow Miss that Act of War?

Good Grief – to look at the websites for the major UK newspapers you would think that nobody there actually caught that kidnapping of 15 Sailors and Royal Marines by Iran.

Daily Telegraph: Sub-head link saying “Iraq says soldiers not in Iranian waters” (Excuse me – Britain now relies on Iraq to stand up for it?)

Financial Times: Not the top story – ties it to a link about Oil prices jump

Guardian: Their main story about Iran is Russia and China pressuring Iran to be a good little boy and mind the Security Council (which they are not really doing). Sub-lead about “Iran Questions Soldiers” hidden.

Mirror: They actually do have a top lead – “Hostages ‘Fit and Well’”. I’m sure that their families will be happy to know that no one will do anything to actually get them out of trouble (and see below for who put them into it in the first place), but that the Iranians haven’t killed them yet.

Independent: They warn the world “US soldiers would have fought back” – being the imperialist warmongers that we in the US obviously are. And the sub-lead blames everything on the US – American raid and arrests set scene for capture of marines.

The Daily Mail: Actually seems concerned that the Marines might be in trouble with “Iranians interrogate captured Marines” as their top story.

The Daily Express: has nothing on their front page about it. They do have a breaking news link that “William chats up a blonde”.

The Thunderer (The Times): also goes with relying on Iraq to save the Brits with “Iraq urges Iran to Release Captured Brits”.

Somehow I don’t think that even the Democrat Party Times newspaper in New York would be burying the story if 15 Americans had been taken hostage by the Persians Islamofascists. But why did this happen so meekly? Well, this from EU Referendum is disturbing:

Our sailors and marines – why did they not defend themselves? They were not allowed to … their rules of engagement did not permit it.

This was raised in Defence Questions today by Ann Winterton MP. She put to the defence minister that “the current rules of engagement that allow no conflict in Iraqi waters with Iranian forces” and thus suggested that “this led directly to 15 of our service personnel being abducted by the Iranians”.

But Winterton was not speculating. Directly from extremely angry servicemen recently back from Iraq, she had received information that boarding parties were under rigid instructions that left no room for discretion. Even though faced with Iranian Republican Guards, every one of the Party knew that to fire a weapon (even a warning shot) would have ensured their personal Court Martial.

Michelle at Hot Air confirms this (actually a link to the Independent above):

Asked by The Independent whether the men under his command would have fired on the Iranians, [Lt. Cdr. Erik Horner] said: “Agreed. Yes. I don’t want to second-guess the British after the fact but our rules of engagement allow a little more latitude. Our boarding team’s training is a little bit more towards self-preservation.”

The executive officer – second-in-command on USS Underwood, the frigate working in the British-controlled task force with HMS Cornwall – said: “The unique US Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self-defence but also an obligation to self-defence. They [the British] had every right in my mind and every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken. Our reaction was, ‘Why didn’t your guys defend themselves?’”…

Yesterday, the former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West, said British rules of engagement were “very much de-escalatory, because we don’t want wars starting … Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away.”

Unfortunately, it looks like this recap from EU Referendum pretty much sums it up:

As it stands, therefore, it looks like the boarding party members were set up like rats in a trap, unable to defend themselves, leaving the Iranians only to say thank you very much indeed for the free hostages. And instead of facing their own military courts, our people are now at risk of being paraded through the Iranian courts, to the utter humiliation of a nation which cannot even safeguard its own troops.