The American Spectator

br> Such a confluence of events, at such an inopportune time, strongly suggests that the naval commanders in the Persian Gulf took their jobs, their surroundings, and their situations less than seriously, preferring to operate as though they were not engaged in combat activities, and as though there was no threat from external foes. That attitude, and the occurrence of such an incident which resulted in the abduction of the British sailors, clearly shows that the Royal Naval force in the Gulf failed to learn anything at all from the Australians’ experience in 2004.

According to the BBC report, “Britain’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, has recently admitted there was a need for greater strategic awareness in the northern Gulf.” It would be difficult to conceive of a more obvious statement. Not only did this episode demonstrate a shocking lack of tactical situational awareness on the part of the British parties involved, but it showed a lack of awareness on a much larger scale, as well, regarding the nature of the enemy in the region. As U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack recently said, the Iranian regime has shown time and again during its quarter-century of existence that it “continues to view hostage-taking as a tool of its international diplomacy.” That Britain somehow lost sight of this fact — and let its guard down while operating so close to Iranian waters, despite knowing what it knew about the recent effort to abduct Australian seamen — is the most inexcusable aspect of this incident.

The surrender of the British soldiers, and their appalling behavior in captivity, are a different topic. Given what is now known, the real question is not why the small group of British sailors acted as they did in their surrender and captivity, but why they were put in that position in the first place.