Look Out! Here Comes Politics!
Actually, I don’t really see this as a political issue at all. Several British sailors were taken hostage in Iran over the weekend. One female in the group, Molly Turney, has been seen on Iranian TV wearing a headscarf talking about how well her captors were treating her, and how the British government was at fault for the whole thing.
All were getting out of the British government is how “concerned” they are that their sailors are being held against their will. The British military appears to be defending their policy of being “non-escalatory”, which appears to be a nice way of saying “Let yourselves get captured. Don’t want to rock the boat you know!”
Is this the way a government should support its troops? I’ve always had mixed thoughts about women serving in the military. Male soldiers don’t get treated particularly well when they are captured, particularly by nations that don’t exactly play by the Geneva conventions. How do you think they’ll treat the women? My prayers go out to Molly and her family. I doubt her captors are behaving like gentlemen. >:(
I would have hoped the British government would be a bit more “robust” in their efforts to get their troops back, not just talk about how “concerned” they are. Forget the niceties. Forget diplomacy. Forget talking, except to say “You have 6 hours to get those troops on a plane for London, mother%$#@”. A hostile country takes soldiers hostage, and nothing is done about it?!? This just seems so irrational. I can only guess there are other interests that those in high places are thinking about here: money, power, deals in smoke filled rooms. It’s just so sad. The troops deserve better.
I can only hope that if American troops are captured, God forbid, that they get more support from their government than the British sailors are getting from theirs. Unfortunately, I’m not that optimistic.