The American Spectator

br> Unless proud England keep untamed br> The strong heart of her sons; br> So let his name through Europe ring,— br> A man of mean estate, br> Who died, as firm as Sparta’s king, br> Because his soul was great. /em> /blockquote> br> The incident was in quite a contrast to the story of the British sailors and marines captured by Iran, admitting everything, and released flourishing gifts from Mr. Ahmadinejad.

One of them told a press conference that he had cried himself to sleep after his captors cruelly called him “Mr. Bean” and took away the iPod which he had carried on a combat mission. The sailor said he also cried when he was reunited with the only female captive, Faye Turney. He further complained about the quality of the presents which the Iranians gave them when they were released.

I don’t think that it’s for me, who has never experienced such an ordeal, to blame him or any of them for being terrified. Possibly there were visions of years in an Iranian prison, lynching by fanatical mobs or videotaped beheadings in their minds.

Further, we don’t know what instructions they had been given on how to behave in such a situation — possibly to co-operate with their captors and not provoke them or do anything to make the situation worse.

But to talk this way after release — as well as two of them rushing to sell their stories to the media (the Ministry of Defense later changed its mind about permitting this, but that it was considered at all suggests the Government knows nothing about the ethos of the fighting services) — seems a bit much to stomach. Surely even in a modern, politically correct Navy there is still dignity.

p>Anyway, one of Britain’s most respected senior officers, General Sir Michael Rose, who led the UN force in Bosnia, is someone qualified by personal experience to comment. And he has claimed the incident has shown that the Royal Navy is no longer fit for modern warfare. The sailors failed to fight back, and behaved as though they were on a Mediterranean cruise, he said. The entire ethos of the military had been undermined: br>