Iran won!

John Bolton, the former American Ambassador to the UN has said that 'Iran won' in the recent standoff between Iran and Britain!

I fear he is right!

"If the outcome of the stand-off with Iran was a success for British diplomacy, "one hesitates to ask what would constitute failure," Bolton wrote in the business daily. "

I have to agree with him here, the embarrassing situation into which Britain has been launched has been a disaster from beginning to end!

First we have a navy and armed personnel who do not have the equipment to properly protect themselves, we have a government that regularly dumps upon the military, either using them as an arm of the left wing policies of this state, or alternatively as a scape goat for 'racism' 'sexism' and the other currently unacceptable 'isms' around today!

This government also believes that they can constantly cut the armed forces budgets, whilst committing them to more and more fields of war! How long this can continue is unclear, the effect on morale is already apparent!

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are also deeply unpopular at home, making the fighting of these wars even harder, in this the government is wholly to blame! First they exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq (Something that makes it almost impossible to fight future wars!), then they make blunder after blunder in the administration of Iraq, all the time refusing to fight the leftist defeatism rife in the press, leaving the left to make the case that Iraq was a disaster, and this war of propaganda was lost long ago!

So, in some ways it is understandable why these troops surrendered so readily, why bother risking one's life so recklessly, why risk one's life for a cause no one at home believes in? Why bother fighting when one's political masters treat one with such obvious disdain?

But this is not the disaster of which I write! That came after this litany of incompetence!

Surrender can be acceptable in some circumstances, there are times when being brave is to be wise! The embarrassment was not the surrender, but the manner of their confinement!

The way in which the British captives behaved was a disgrace, mainly to themselves! It is one thing for the government to dump on you or for the press to smear your name or for the PC brigade to attack you for all you do and do not do, that is one thing! No matter how much shit is thrown at you, you still have your honour! This is what those captives gave away whilst in Iran, they gave away their honour!

This is the thing which I believe upsets people, this is what will not be forgotten quickly by the world!

Weakness was shown in Iran, not physical weakness, but moral weakness, these men and woman had no honour, and if they did, they have it no more! By extension neither does Britain!