More Agitprop Released By Iran

Day Seven.

Iran continues to release video of various sailors and Royal Marines captured inside Iraqi waters. They repeat the Iranian party line - that the British had crossed into Iranian waters and that they call for the British government to apologize.

Funny thing is that the actual evidence shows that the Iranians are the ones who not only crossed the border between Iran and Iraq, but captured the British sailors and Marines inside Iraqi waters.

The British continue to stand by their evidence and assertions that their forces were inside Iraqi waters when the incident occurred, and the Iranians continue to trot out the sailors and Marines who are under duress and were likely coerced to make statements against British interests.

Verum Serum makes some interesting observations about the incident and video released by the Iranians. Hot Air has more as well.

UPDATE:
EU Referendum wonders at how the British got themselves into this mess in the first place given the video released supposedly showing lightly armed Iranian forces overtaking the British. What exactly were the British rules of engagement and where was the British supporting forces when this was happening?

[A]s more details emerge of the snatch, it has emerged that only two boats were initially used by the Iranians. Video footage has been released by Iranian television showing close-ups of one of the vessels, a small speedboat with a crew of three, armed with what appears to be a single 12.7mm machine gun.

This was hardly a formidable force and one which, with the right assets in place and an alert overwatch, could easily have been seen off. Given the enormous repercussions of the kidnapping – to say nothing of the national humiliation – questions as to how the British service personnel were so easily ambushed now become increasingly urgent.

UPDATE:
Was the HMS Cornwall ordered not to interfere and engage the Iranian forces that captured 15 British servicemembers? That's the implication of this report.

The latest report is that the Britons were ready to fight off their abductors. Certainly their escorting ship, HMS Cornwall, could have blown the Iranian naval vessel out of the water. However, at the last minute the British Ministry of Defense ordered the Cornwall not to fire, and her captain and crew were forced to watch their shipmates led away into captivity.

There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can't even protect its own sailors.

Heads should be rolling at the Royal Navy headquarters for this debacle. Who gave the order preventing the ship from engaging mortal threats to its boarding parties? This is micromanagement of a conflict thousands of miles away, and this is the kind of nonsense that Democrats are trying to foist upon President Bush and the military through their imposition of deadlines, timetables, and other such blather in appropriation bills. This is what a conflict looks like when you have lawyers trying to determine rules of engagement from afar when the very real threat moves inside the decision making cycle.

Instead of taking on the Iranian force when it was possible to do so, the Royal Navy ceded the field of battle and instead saw its own captured and paraded on television as propaganda.

UPDATE:
Those questions about the legitimacy of the the letters released by Iran purporting to be from the captive Britons are now being raised by the AP. Hot Air has more, including reports that US forces apparently killed an Iranian soldier inside Iraq while the Iranian was in the process of firing RPGs.

Others blogging: Heavy Handed Politics and Blue Star Chronicles.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, The Random Yak, Adam's Blog, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Phastidio.net, Leaning Straight Up, , Conservative Cat, LaTogaStrappata®, Rightlinx, sissunchi, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, , stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, The Right Nation, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.