More news on the news of the British sailors and marines:

It seems the head British Military Chaplin thinks the Iranians were quite polite in their handling of the hostages.

From the UK Telegraph:

Fury as bishops back Iran
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent Nicole Martin and Brendan Carlin

he Roman Catholic bishop who oversees the armed forces has provoked fury by praising the Iranian leadership for its “forgiveness” and “act of mercy” in freeing the 15 British sailors and marines last week.

Bishop of the Forces, the Rt Rev Tom Burns
Bishop Burns said Iran demonstrated ‘faith in a forgiving God’

The Bishop of the Forces, the Rt Rev Tom Burns, said that the religious beliefs of the Iranians had played a large part in their decision to release the hostages after holding them for more than two weeks.

His words were echoed by a leading Anglican figure, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, who said Iran had acted within the “moral and spiritual tradition of their country” and contrasted this with Britain’s “free-floating attitudes”.
[…]

What has happened to Winston Churchill’s England?

This is beginning to look more like a late night infomercial about Ginzu knifes that an international incident. Now do we just sit back and see the MoD’s version of “British Sea Service Idol?”

I know some around the net, including some of my professional serving peers indicated we should sit back and listen for the truth behind the Iranian-British hostage situation before passing judgment on behavior, but this takes the cake:

“Fury as the Hostages Sell Stories” from the UK based Times Online.

It seems the MoD has authorized an exception to the ban against military members making money off their service experiences.

The 15 British military captives who were released by the Iranians have been authorised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to sell their stories.

MoD officials claimed that the move to lift the ban on military personnel selling their stories while in service was justified because of the “exceptional circumstances” of the case. The hostages are expected to earn as much as £250,000 between them.

The story of Faye Turney, 26, the only female among them, is expected to be the most lucrative. She could profit by as much as £150,000 from a joint deal with a newspaper and ITV.

The MoD bracketed the hostages’ 13-day captivity in Iran — including appearances on state television by some to admit straying into Iranian waters — with winners of the Victoria Cross.
[…]

What can I saw but I think I’m not going to think the best of these 15 members of the Queen’s Own any longer. Even the one who “didn’t break,” for he think he should get more than the others, except he knows the female angle will take the largest purse.

I’m sure two retired Colonels will have more to say about this shameful money grab.

I’m glad we had our Adm Stockdale’s, Senator McCain’s and Captain Lance Sijan’s in our history, and those three names are but a few of the many who have honored us with their resolve recently and in the past conflicts we have had.

But this story of greed begs the question: Will the President of Iran get personalized, signed copies of each book for his collection? Oh, and I wonder how big the promotion will be for the Middle Eastern book signing tour? will the MoD grant them extra leave, or make them wait until they have completed their service time?

I’m a little steamed about it all myself.

Oh, and don’t forget to check eBay regularly in the next few days for your chance to win the auctions on the items from the goodie bags they received as a “thank you” for stopping by present.

Besides being a sad statement of military good order and discipline, it sure lends itself to a range of comedic scripts…more on that later.

H/T: Little Green Footballs – “British Hostages Sell Stories for Big Cash”

Tracked back@: Third World County, 123beta, Stuck on Stupid, Blue Star Chronicles

I found the .pdf files for one of my commands, courtesy of the taxpayers dollars!

Naval Ship Histories has the CNO mandated monthly history reports scanned in for some ships. I got the see some of the formal submissions I wrote!

There isn’t every ship, but your’s just might be one of them.

Also, as a bonus for reading this post, thanks to Eagle Speak, I found out the DoD publishes a “Bloggers Roundtable”, where there is material to address some of the issues and news in the blogs:

Welcome to the archives of the “Bloggers’ Roundtable.” Here you will find source material for recent stories in the blogosphere concerning the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Global War on Terrorism by bloggers and online journalists. Where available, this includes transcripts, biographies, related fact sheets and video.

Today, above the fold, main section, New York Times:

Photo: Tyler Hicks/New York Times
Caption: “Dutch soldiers, who stress reconstruction over combat, with a member of the Afghan National Police recently in Qala-e-Surkh, Afghanistan.”Could the parenthetical statement “who stress reconstruction over combat” have been left out and still conveyed a message? I think so, but I guess any set of words can be used to convey a bias when you really want to get the point across….

In the meantime, why are there no pictures like this of the SEABEES? They have been stressing not only reconstruction, but also construction over combat for their entire existence. Prominently displayed on their home page the words: “With compassion for others, we build – we fight for peace and freedom.” Not only do they build and fight, they have been known to build while they fight!

I guess the Dutch have issued camo and M-16s to carpenters.  I suggest they outsource their work to the Navy.

The “media” that is seen/heard by much of America and the world continues to pronounce doom and gloom in the Middle East. No longer “news” most of what I look at seem to be little more that editorializing at any opportunity. It bothers me.

Add to this that a common complaint from those who are defending us forward is “the story is not getting told.” I concur.

I was spurred on to write this after hearing the hearing the author of “Grace Under Fire,” Andrew Carroll, on the Laura Ingraham Show this morning. He has taken it upon himself to help preserve the letters of service members and family for history. He also has a list of troop support organizations up on his book’s site.

Here’s what I’m thinking: Make your blog available for the troops who would like to share their stories, but certainly don’t have time to set up and write a blog of their own. If have a blog that gets lots of such inputs, and can’t possibly get them all out in a timely fashion, find those who will volunteer their “space” and pass the inputs out, so they are spread far and wide. More possibility of exposure to those who might not otherwise get to read the story of the platoon that takes on the task of cleaning up/repairing and outfitting a school in Afghanistan, for instance.

I haven’t set up a blog roll, but I’m on several, so I suspect one would be useful and then the cross-pollinating would be extensive (if there were lots of blogs willing to chip in.

That’s idea number one….and it just might have some leverage in turning the tide of no news on the good news. Comments?

Idea #2: I have chosen to highlight the ValOUR-IT project the 11th of each month, just to be a friendly reminder that it’s not just Veteran’s Day when we should consider contributing to this wonderful program. The follow on to this idea is to either weekly or monthly, pick one of the troop support organizations (see my compiled list here), post their charter and find some testimonials to the success of the work they have done and spread the word that way….

Anyhow, I had been planning to blast this out to the Navy ValOUR-IT blogs (and I suspect I still might this weekend), to see about getting the ball rolling at the grass-roots level.

Anyone can help in this, particularly the second idea above.

If you have friends/family serving in the Sandbox, ask permission to get their stories and post them. Let them tell their stories.

Just think: Everyday bloggers helping to tell real stories that otherwise may have to wait years for historians, or be forever lost because “I didn’t think anyone cared.”

Fire away with modifications/ideas/etc.

What better way to be a servant, particularly in this week, than to support those who are supporting us.

Surfing about, I read Secretary Rice is making a trip to Libya and Sudan to discuss Darfur.

Sometimes it’s what isn’t going on that’s very important.

Lemme see….the Speaker of the House is in Syria and Saudi Arabia to undermine the US foreign policy on the War on Terror, and the SEC State is headed to Africa to try to end the genocide in Africa by TALKING TO THEM!

Did I miss something, or wasn’t it a large number of liberals, notably the Hollywood crowd, all hollering that we need to do something about the slaughter in the Darfur region? And they also demand we “talk to ‘them'” before using the military might of the nation?

Actions…they speak volumes. Guess who’s in it for the power, and who’s in it for the human race?

Victor David Hanson’s column today nails it….

[…]
What should we make of the Iranians’ behavior?

Namely that the country’s leadership is in deep political trouble. The Iranian government is desperate to provoke the West to win back friends in the Islamic world, and to quell growing unrest at home. Subsidizing food and gas, providing billions for terrorists and building nukes all cost money at a time when the state-run Iranian economy is in shambles.
[…]

It’s all about “showing off” and his contention is they want us to not just rattle the saber, but unsheathe it in their specific direction. More propaganda victories, even if it means many Iranian citizens take the bullet(s) for their President. If we do, then AMadDinnerJacket has propaganda out the wazoo and he’s still not with the 72 raisins. like some of his country men would be

Mark Steyn on Bill Bennett’s show this morning said “we need to quit handing them these little propaganda victories.” He was discussing the Birts backing down on the hostage situation, but he meant victories in plural. The pile of “little propaganda victories” is getting pretty tall in the last 5 years. At some point it will look like one big one to the Islamic world culture.

So…VDH says take your fingers off the pickle. Other things will do the job without giving them what they demand….go and find out what he says.

I was scrolling through the channels last night and settled on a documentary on the History Channel: “The First World War: Jihad”

It was about the British/ANZAC battles in the Mediterranean in WWI and it backtracked some of the ramp up situations.

It seems the Germans, with a “little” problem on their eastern border realized the Turks to the south, and Muslim in nature, also had a problem with the Russians. Solution to a really big nation? Gather overt allies, or….study the neighboring culture and fine a leverage point. They did. Guess what it was? “Jihad.” Heard of it?

To be brief, the show talked through the campaigns of the early days of WWI and also included some of the effect after the war, to include the problems the Brits had in the empire in the Middle East. It seems the jihad “reminder” placed by the Kaiser led to an emboldened Turkey and Muslim world, and it was on with the jihad even before WWII.

What a legacy. On the other hand, for some time, I thought this was a more recent phenomena, but it seems the Soviets got more than German rocket scientists at the end of WWII….

(it shows again 4/7-11-12-14. The link takes you to the schedule)

Check this out…..Who really did it?

I went back and did some more work at the end of the posting on the topic of the captured British service members, based on the announcement from Iran today saying they were “pardoned.”

In the background, I’m doing an email discussion with someone who has questions on shipboard operations, and I suspect he has some detailed knowledge. I’m looking forward to reading some details, but it already sounds like letting your small boats operate in the open waters of the Gulf 4 NM away is a recipe for disaster, or this kind, and possibly a physical one from the elements in “normal” circumstances.

More when that comes through. I did spend a few months patrolling the “NPG” (Northern Persian Gulf) in an FFG, but spent more time in the “SOHEPA” (Strait of Homuz/Eastern Patrol Area) doing tanker escort on that cruise. All that while filling the Navigator billet, too.

Update: Here’s the post from Red State’s blog. He’s done some good homework and has some good graphics/charts and info to links on the ROE….

EU Referendum has more (found in the comments section at Red State).

It seems the USS CHINOOK (PC-9) and WHIRLWIND (PC-11) were in the flotilla. CYCLONE Class patrol boats that could have dashed in a put a hurting on any Iranians eyeing the Brits with evil intent….

Tracked back @; Yankee Sailor (who is back up and posting after a majority of a year layoff)