UK Soldiers Home From Iran

My gut reaction a few days ago to the videos the British soldiers made in Iran seems to be the same reaction some conservatives had, and this feels wierd, like I'm having an identity crisis or something. Somebody help me!Jack Jacobs is the military analyst on MSNBC and he's very conservative. He's livid about the way these soldiers behaved from the time they were approached by the Iranian ship to the news conference they held this morning. Although I don't share his outrage that the Brits didn't open fire on the Iranians when approached (why are so many of these idiots chomping at the bit for a war with Iran?), my first reaction to those videos the soldiers made was pretty much the same as his - it was disgraceful.I haven't been watching Fox Noise much lately (although I did see the video of Bill O'Reilly's delightful little tte--tte with Geraldo from last night) but I feel sure that more than one or two of the talking heads over there are saying the same things Jacobs is saying. So I'm wondering if they're blaming only the troops themselves or are they also taking issue with the military unit that trained them.Although I believe they behaved horribly, I get the feeling that these soldiers didn't know any better. Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

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W.W.E.D.?

I don't disagree with you at all, Chiro; but the point I'm making is quite a different one.And just as an aside, I doubt Jacobs would disagree with you either. I said he was very conservative, but as I recall he isn't a neocon. I remember him being quite disgusted with the debate over torture tactics at Guantanemo, unless I'm confusing him with someone else (which is possible).

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W.W.E.D.?

I can't quite put my finger on the precise thing, maybe because I've never been in the military, but I always thought a marine would surrender his life before he'd admit to anything his captor was charging him with. Maybe that standard has changed and maybe it's a good thing, but if it did change I never heard the debate. I'd like to.

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W.W.E.D.?

I wasn't so concerned about honor, I was concerned about the military itself. I'm pretty sure that a marine isn't supposed to make apologies and/or admissions to a captor but I'm not so sure why. Jacobs says they're only supposed to give their name, rank and serial number, but that seems overly strict. Clearly, they shouldn't give out information that might hurt their fellows, but it's not so clear why they shouldn't admit to something if it can help them in some way.I don't know, maybe I've just watched too many WWII movies. Like I said, I'm not nearly as rabid as most of the critics of these kids, but my first gut reaction to seeing those videos was "what the hell do they think they're doing?" It just seemed like the sort of thing a marine isn't supposed to do.If anyone reading this has been in the military and knows what rule I'm thinking these kids broke, I'd like to know. I'd also like to know what the rationale behind that rule is and whether it's been relaxed to any extent in recent decades. Further, I'd like to know if the rule is different when dealing with a captor with whom one is not at war.For the record, I'm thrilled the kids are home and I don't condemn what they did (especially since I'm not so sure I wouldn't have done the same thing). But I don't want to completely condone what they did either, at least not until I understand more about this.

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W.W.E.D.?