Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The Ministry of Defence in the UK has given the 15 sailors and Marines captured by Iran special dispensation to sell their stories to the Press. As if the whole thing wasn’t already a complete farce?
I’m not going to go into the rights or wrong of whether or not they should have confessed to being in Iranian waters because I wasn’t there and, therefore, have no idea what happened and although all TV footage had them looking happy as Larry, we have to remember that, as in all countries, the footage released wasn’t likely to show the host country in a bad light. Most viewers are sensible enough to understand that and would take anything they see with a pinch of salt.
With that said, now that it’s all over, both the captured personnel and the UK government should be conducting themselves with more dignity. It was a terrible enough thing to have happened in the first place but to be allowed to make money of it is faintly ridiculous!
Whatever your reasons for signing up to the armed forces in the first place, you have to know when you sign on the doted line that one day there may be a possibility you’ll find yourself in a situation you’d rather not be in and the fact that they had to be given special dispensation to be allowed to sell their stories means that it is not usual government policy. What makes them, rather than genuine prisoners of war that have been through far more gruelling experiences in captivity, more entitled to sell their stories? It seems 10 per cent of the money they make is going to go to HMS Cornwall. Why? If they’re going to be so philanthropic (smell my sarcasm) shouldn’t the money go to a veteran’s charity?
