British troops captured by Iranian forces

[Swordwind]

Fifteen British Navy personnel have been captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces, the Ministry of Defence says.

The men were seized at 1030 local time when they boarded a boat in the Gulf, off the coast of Iraq, which they suspected was smuggling cars.

The Royal Navy said the group was on a routine patrol in Iraqi waters and were understood to be unharmed.

But Iranian state television quoted the Iran foreign ministry as saying they had illegally entered Iranian waters.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has demanded the immediate and safe return of the HMS Cornwall servicemen.

She added that she had called for a \"full explanation\" from Iran and had left them in no doubt that she wanted the group and their equipment back immediately.


We understand that they were in two boats that were operating in Iraqi waters
Margaret Beckett, Foreign Secretary

The task force\'s commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said he was hoping there had been a \"simple mistake\" over territorial waters.

\"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they [British personnel] were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally, the Iranians may claim they were in Iranian territorial waters.

\"We may well find that this is a simple misunderstanding at the tactical level.\"

Helicopters had reported seeing two British boats being moved along the Shatt al-Arab waterway to Iranian bases and there had been no evidence of fighting, he added.

BBC News article

What the hell does Iran think its doing? Half the western world is just waiting for an excuse to kick thier ass and they do something stupid like this.

 

[GreenOne]

The situation is quite tense in these neiborhood and ther is no exact landmark for the line between the two country in water, might be a miscalculation from the british.
Iran is not an occupied country, far from it, and british are not their friend either, in this situation the iranian leader can\'t let other forces mess about in their territory, so what do you expect them to do, really?
I think it would catastrophycally misleaded to start a war over such a triffle, and both sides are probably aware of that so I guess we can expect this situation to be settled rapidly.
My advice, stay in Iraq that\'s already far enough...

 

[Dr. Aven]

Originally posted by Swordwind

Half the western world

Yes, Usa is big but not half of the western world I think.

Sounds stupid though, but at this point it´s impossible to say who was right.

 

[Thecadian]

well aparently its happened before and so hopefully itll all end peacefully

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Originally posted by Dr. Aven

Originally posted by Swordwind

Half the western world

Yes, Usa is big but not half of the western world I think.

Sounds stupid though, but at this point it´s impossible to say who was right.

Actually...

USA population:
298444215

Canada and mexico combined: 140311228

So really 2/3s.

Add in South America at 370225923 and you still have just about half.

Edit... typo on first number.

 

[supervike]

Three!

The answer is Three!

The question.

How many posts before this turned into a USA Bash?

Well done!

:beer::beer::beer:

 

[GreenOne]

@Supervike: Well, actually the poster is from UK, so maybe we could turn it in a UK bash thread, for a change
Granted CMON is no place for talking about politics, I keep the rest of my taughts for my blog...

That being said, I think swordwind was including western europe in his outrageous generalisation. As for myself, I am not waiting to kick inanian butts, in fact I think I got nothing to do with them, so subtract one from the count please. Then again, I am not in the oil business sooo...

Still it\'s an interesting fact in actuality that I wouldn\'t have wanted to pass me by, and apart from biased political claiming, I think this is the point of this post.

 

[Swordwind]

I was actually refering the increased sanctions that received support from all 5 permanent members of the UN security council, including Russia who is supposed to be bestest buddies with Iran.

 

[supervike]

Politics aside...i certainly hope these brave soldiers are returned safe and sound.

 

[No Such Agency]

Eh it\'s sword-waving, sometimes a country feels the need to demonstrate that it takes its sovereignty seriously. Not really good for the British marines but I doubt the Iranians will do anything worse than call them some rude names and feed them messhall-quality Persian food. Nobody\'s going to \"kick anyone\'s ass\" over a little thing like this. It\'s just politics.

 

[Evil Dave]

I actually think we should leave Iran alone.
They are doing more for bringing about peace in the midddle east by being the common enemy. Just the other day I was reading how 3 arab states gave the Israeli\'s permission to use their air space in the event that Israel may need to bomb Iran.

Let me rephrase that: the Arabs have given the Jews, their most hated enemies, the go ahead to bomb other Arabs.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Originally posted by Evil Dave
I actually think we should leave Iran alone.
They are doing more for bringing about peace in the midddle east by being the common enemy. Just the other day I was reading how 3 arab states gave the Israeli\'s permission to use their air space in the event that Israel may need to bomb Iran.

Let me rephrase that: the Arabs have given the Jews, their most hated enemies, the go ahead to bomb other Arabs.

If I\'m not wrong.. Iranians are not Arabs, they are persians and well hated by many in the middle east. There are many countries in the middle east who would not shed a tear if Iran was attacked. Setting that aside, its definately saber ratteling by Iran over UN Sanctions.

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by Evil Dave
Let me rephrase that: the Arabs have given the Jews, their most hated enemies, the go ahead to bomb other Arabs.

Which Arabs are those? The ones in Iran who are in fact Persian?

/insert \"300\" joke here, if we\'re not all sick of them by now, which we are

 

[skeeve]

With such a high concentration of hardware in the region I am surprised that it happened only twice since 2004. At least they don’t shoot down planes that from time to time cross over. I don\'t have to explain that they have both right and capacity to do so..

 

[airhead]

My heart goes out to those servicemen and their families. I pray that this works out in the positive with them safe at home.

Greenone, I am not really picking on you, just the arguments you bring up.

Originally posted by GreenOne
...and there is no exact landmark for the line between the two country in water...

Let me add, that all ships know within a meter of their exact position on the globe. The military has had better GPS gear than civilian for a long time.

Then again, I am not in the oil business sooo...

So you buy nothing that was trucked into the grocery store? Don\'t use fuel to heat your home? Don\'t own a vehicle?

We are all in the oil business. Oil keeps the free world moving. It paves our streets, it fuels the trucks that drive those streets that bring us food, it provides a lot of our other energy as well.
If we could be shed of oil tomorrow, it would turn the world\'s economy upside down.

 

[Evil Dave]

Originally posted by No Such Agency

Originally posted by Evil Dave
Let me rephrase that: the Arabs have given the Jews, their most hated enemies, the go ahead to bomb other Arabs.

Which Arabs are those? The ones in Iran who are in fact Persian?

Like the Mexicans are all Mayans?
Sorry, I tend not to call people by the fallen empires that they choose to try and differentiate themselves with.
Besides Persia was conquered by the Arabs and held for a couple hundred years, not to mention, the open borders, I\'d guarantee there are far more of Arab descent than original Persian.

 

[skeeve]

Originally posted by Evil Dave

Originally posted by No Such Agency

Originally posted by Evil Dave
Let me rephrase that: the Arabs have given the Jews, their most hated enemies, the go ahead to bomb other Arabs.

Which Arabs are those? The ones in Iran who are in fact Persian?

Like the Mexicans are all Mayans?
Sorry, I tend not to call people by the fallen empires that they choose to try and differentiate themselves with.
Besides Persia was conquered by the Arabs and held for a couple hundred years, not to mention, the open borders, I\'d guarantee there are far more of Arab descent than original Persian.

Please, please , before you guarantee something in public may be you should put some minimal efforts and read up something, otherwise your guaranties might sound really ridiculous . You clearly have an access to the internet...
There are whooping 3-5% of Arabs in Iran. People of Iran do not speak Arabic, they speak Farsi. In fact these are two completely unrelated languages that belongs two different language families. Farsi is Indo-European while Arabic is Semitic. The difference is much greater then, say between English and Russian (they are both are Indo-European languages)
The writing system was indeed borrowed from Arabic while graphically similar it was modified and completely unintelligible for either reader. Again, writing system means nothing; how about the similarity between English and Vietnamese? They have the same writing system.

 

[krom1415]

It is sad that the British forces didn\'t protect the boats with the helecopter and backup from the warship.
I think its discusting were in this position in the first place.
Any force that does not protect its own soldiers,...........well nuff said.
Ridiculous situation, and shows what a load of crap our forces are, due to lack of proper equipment. The men/women are doing a difficult job out there, getting killed for our petrol, herhum..Irans freedom and as usual, our governments arn\'t backing them up with kit, the very people that sent them there in the first place.
Its totally embarrising that a country that thinks it can police the world, cant even put a decent force into the field, and has to rely on the brave troops to muddle on as usual.
Britian, sort yourself out, and stop sitting on your arse allowing our people to get walked all over as usual
Moan over, Mark sitting on his arse lol
Come back safely brave chaps

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by krom1415

Come back safely brave chaps

all that needs to be said! good luck fellas!

 

[skeeve]

Originally posted by freakinacage

Originally posted by krom1415

Come back safely brave chaps

all that needs to be said! good luck fellas!

I am sure they will. Nobody wants on need to harm them. Personally, this whole incident is blown out of proportion by both sides for obvious reasons.
Incidents like this in difficult geographic areas with complicated border configuration happen all the time. If each of them caused so much media attention then Russia and Japan for example would be in a perpetual state of war for the last 20 years.

Notice however:
1) Both sides claim that they have GPS readings for the position of the incident. Considering that the precision of GPS is 1-3 meters I find it surprising that neither side disclosed exact coordinates of the incident.

2) Shatt al Arab is a river, depending on the area of operation rather narrow one. The border between Iran and Iraq are in the middle of the waterway thus, obviously cut the distance in half. So, it is indeed possible that they drifted over to the Iranian side

3) It was announced several days ago that Iran started naval war game in the Gulf that will continue to the end of March. Thus, the elevated activity of Iranian navy should have been expected. No?

4) And finally, notice that price of oil went up by 1% since this incident. For you and me this 1% means nothing. Those who sell oil for a living (Iran and British Petroleum included) just earned extra tens millions of dollars (pounds, rials)