Phillips on The Fifteen

Melanie Phillips, in a brutal, no-quarter-given-nor-taken recounting of the salient points, excoriates the Royal Navy amongst others:

Iran kidnapped 15 British sailors in an open breach of international law. What consequences has it suffered? None. On the contrary, it has played Britain like a fish on the end of a line. We don’t yet know the terms of the deal that was undoubtedly struck, but the abasement of Britain has allowed Iran to tweak our noses. In Teheran, a top Iranian official has said Britain sent it a secret letter that was a condition for the captives’ release and in which it apologised for entering Iranian waters and promised never to do it again. The Foreign Office flatly denies this. Who knows? Who will believe a British government that has so comprehensively lost the plot?

The sailors's behavior is especially atrocious, as she points out:

If the strategy is fundamentally one of cravenness in the face of war, the behaviour of the sailors themselves poses some urgent questions about the way military recruits are trained. These sailors appear to have been but wholly unprepared for war and wholly ignorant of the way in which they should behave when captured. Undoubtedly, they were subjected to terrifying experiences. But for heaven’s sake, they are Britain’s fighting forces! You would scarcely believe, to hear them justify their behaviour by recounting how frightening the whole thing was, that these individuals were members of the Royal Navy.

Terrible. This is the modern equivalent of Nelson, Drake, and Churchill? Even stranger:

Most astounding of all, they arrived home clutching the goodie bags of sweets, CDs, books and trinkets they had been given to cement the grotesque impression of Iranian benevolence, for all the world as if returning from a children’s party. Why didn’t they leave these ‘gifts’ behind? Why didn’t they leave them on the plane? Was there simply no-one in the Royal Navy or MoD who thought that maybe it might not be an entirely wonderful idea for servicemen released from captivity to retain and flourish ‘gifts’ from their manipulative captors, thus actively assisting the propaganda coup? Is there simply no-one with any sense at all left in the British defence establishment?

Good question! Alas, the fact it has to be asked is ominous indeed. Read the whole thing.