Seems the 15 Brit service personel sold their story

[Hawco]

Not a bad Job, collapse like a pack of cards and diss your country on TV while some of your comrades are dying in Iraq, then sell your story to the media on your release. They should give the cash they make from this to the families that have lost loved ones.
What's the betting that the sole chick pockets the most as she no doubt will attract the most "sympathy" ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6546303.stm

[bj229r]

I was hoping all the Brit military wasn't like those kids---just didn't seem possible things could have sunk that low:

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070413-012809-3245r.htm

But the heaviest flak was aimed at Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman in the group, for having pocketed a reported $117,000 payoff for her story, and Seaman Arthur Batchelor, at 20 the youngest of the 15, who complained that he was paid "less than a tenth" of Seaman Turney's fee. That, he said, was not even enough to buy a car.
    "It is simply shocking," fumed one critic on the Rum Ration site. "Get captured (i.e., don't do your job right) and you make 5 times the average sailor's salary in one story."
    Another said that "in the same week as we lost 6 of our soldiers in Iraq, for these people to be given permission to line their pockets is disgusting."
    Yet another said all 15 "have embarrassed the nation, the forces and themselves. They are a disgrace to the uniforms they wear and should leave."
    A poll on the Rum Ration Web site, which is frequented by both active and retired military personnel, said 92 percent of its contributors agreed that Seaman Batchelor was "wrong to sell his story."
    In an interview he sold to London's Daily Mirror newspaper, Seaman Batchelor said, "I'm really hurt by all the criticism. ... The money I received will simply pay for a few driving lessons. I'm not sure it will cover the cost of an actual test, let alone a car."
    The young seaman complained that during his capture, the Iranians stole his IPod and he conceded that he had cried himself to sleep after his captors nicknamed him "Mr. Bean," a comically nerdish figure in British entertainment. To his dismay, his critics back home have now eagerly seized on it.
    "It's perfectly fair to criticize Mr. Bean," said one Rum Ration contributor. "Not for being unattractive ... but for being a complete numpty wimp who blubbed [cried] when they took his iPod, blubbed when they flicked the back of his neck, blubbed when they called him Mr. Bean and asked Faye for a big huggy-wuggy when they met up."

[Mickey1992]

A good AAR about British forces in Iraq by Yon.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/british-forces-at-war-as-witnessed-by-an-american.htm

[Shuffler]

Well obviously a few guys in a dingy can capture a british warship.....

Actually I am not up to date on the story other than heresay. But capturing a warship seems odd to me.

[Shifty]

Originally posted by Mickey1992
A good AAR about British forces in Iraq by Yon.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/british-forces-at-war-as-witnessed-by-an-american.htm

Good read Mickey. Thanks!

[Dowding]

Actually I am not up to date on the story other than heresay. But capturing a warship seems odd to me.

How about you actually do a little light research before highlighting your ignorance?

You'll find that the 'warship' was a little rubber dinghy.

[Hawco]

It is annoying that these folks can make some cash out of this for nothing and that the MOD let them do it, something wrong with that picture.

[Mickey1992]

Is the controversy because they are active in the military when they sold the story?

[john9001]

Originally posted by Dowding
You'll find that the 'warship' was a little rubber dinghy.

Rigid-hulled inflatable boat
 General characteristics
RIBs are commonly 4 to 7 metres (13 to 24 ft) long, although they can range in length between 2.5 and 18 metres (7.5 and 55 ft). A RIB is often propelled by one or more outboard motors or an inboard motor turning a water jet or z-drive. Generally the power of the motors is in the range of 5 to 500 horse power (4 to 400 kW).

RIBs are used as rescue craft, safety boats for sailing, dive boats or tenders for larger boats and ships. Their shallow draught, high maneuverability, speed and relative immunity to damage in low speed collisions are advantages in these applications.

RIBs up to about 7 metres in length can be towed on trailers on the road, making them attractive as leisure craft.

not exactly a "little rubber dinghy"

[Charon]

William Lind has an interesting perspective on the issues over at SFTT. For those unfamiliar, he's not a "euro basher" he just calls them like he see's them and is more than critical about US military shortcomings and operational failures.

Horatio Hornblower's Worst Nightmare
The tiff over maritime boundaries in the Shatt-al-Arab between Iran and Great Britain seems to be over, with the British sailors and Marines released and returned to the U.K. I continue to suspect a deal was made regarding the five Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers held by the U.S. in Iraq. If they go home in a few weeks or months, it will be a quid pro quo, regardless of how much Washington and London deny it.

For Britain, and especially for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, the incident ended in utter disgrace. The initial surrender of the British boarding party to what appears to have been a much larger Iranian force is the only defensible British action in the whole sorry business. Even in Horatio Hornblower's Royal Navy, a British frigate captain was not disgraced if he struck to a French or Spanish ship of the line. Force majeure remains a valid excuse...

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=HOME%20DefenseWatch%202.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=3&rnd=314.7783851644373

Charon

[Hawco]

Originally posted by Charon
William Lind has an interesting perspective on the issues over at SFTT. For those unfamiliar, he's not a "euro basher" he just calls them like he see's them and is more than critical about US military shortcomings and operational failures.

 

Charon

I blame it on the lowering of standards RE: Recruitment, Just as in the US forces, I think the recruiters are under pressure to make sure enough numbers Join up.

[Furball]

Originally posted by Mickey1992
A good AAR about British forces in Iraq by Yon.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/british-forces-at-war-as-witnessed-by-an-american.htm

very good read, thanks for sharing that Mickey.

[ravells]

Dowding...there was a warship standing off that did nothing...the facts about their capture are still murky but until they're cleared up I'm going with this:

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=568862007

Ravs

[cpxxx]

Whatever about selling their stories. it is disappointing that someone like General Rose should criticise them for not resisting a superior force and dying pointlessly and absurdly in firefight against forces of a country they are not even at war with. Surrender is no disgrace in that situation.

The real question to be addressed is why they were left thus exposed. I know it was said that the Cornwall was unable to close on the vessel they were inspecting due to the shallowness of the water.  But it does seem to be a bit strange.

[john9001]

you are assuming that if they had resisted, the "superior" force would not have backed down, or even lost the fight if it came to that.