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| Why We're Not Winning The "War Against Terror" IV | May 6, 2007, 10:19 pm | visits: 269 | wordcount: 468
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By Peter Davies
Iran's Humiliation of the Royal Navy
I am sure that I can't be the only ex-forces man who is squirming with embarrassment, and seething with anger at the same time over the humiliation of the British Royal Navy by Iran last week.
The ‘clever' and sophisticated military journalists and retired Admirals comment on how we must understand that ‘face' is important to "these people". They say Iranians mustn't be made to lose face… because "it's important to them". How damn condescending is that? No wonder most of the world hates us, or is simply bemused.
Like many other ex-servicemen without a public voice, my own front line experiences in another war against terror tell me that these ‘smart' intellectuals and liberals are wrong. I was involved in the capture and interrogation of terrorists. I also fought beside former terrorists who had been ‘turned' (persuaded) to fight with us against their former comrades. So I can claim to know something about how they think.
It's taken Tony Blair's government years to recognise that loss of respect is an important issue behind the growing British crime wave. British streets are becoming no-go areas for decent law-abiding citizens, and British policemen are afraid to go on patrol without specialist protective clothing… Loss of face is loss of respect – it's the same thing. Most of the world regards ‘face' (respect) to be of both personal and national importance. Yet Anglo-Saxon intellectuals regard ‘face' as a faintly amusing foreign idiosyncrasy that needs to be appeased, while our own ‘face' is irrelevant.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost; on British streets, and – more dangerously – in war zones, as demonstrated by Iran in the Gulf last week.
So, when the commander of a powerful British Royal Navy warship allows a small nearby detachment of his personnel to be captured by a small Iranian force, it suggests to me that British ‘rules of engagement" are at fault; so too the fact that the small British force failed to put up any fight in their own defence…
But to most of the rest of the world this incident implies cowardice. Allowing the Iranian thugs to get away with it is yet another humiliation to the USA, caused by this blatant strike at their ‘soft underbelly' – UK forces. All coalition forces have lost face over this and all coalition forces, wherever they are will be in greater danger than ever before.
Iran had no respect for British forces. It now has even less. Other aggressive people will be watching with interest. And they'll become bolder. More such situations will arise until Britain or, more likely the USA is driven to act. There will be major conflict and it will have been caused by Britain's weakness. The USA must not allow liberal weakness to result in the destruction of Western Civilisation.
Peter Davies was a territorial soldier in Rhodesia from 1963 to 1975. Davies' novel, Scatterlings of Africa, is based on his own experience in the war, and personal observations of how terrorist activities impacted Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)and its people. Learn more at http://www.peterdaviesbooks.com
Source:www.isnare.com | |
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