Brit soldiers not given VIP treatment in Iran

Above, Left to Right: Joe Tindall, Arthur Batchelor, Chris Air, Felix Carman, Adam Sperry and Simon Massey during a press conference.

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Can anyone honestly say they're surprised to hear this news? It seems as if Iran didn't exactly give the VIP treatment to the 15 British soldiers that it held captive for 13 days. I can think of five reasons why I wasn't surprised to hear the news...

It doesn't take a diplomat to figure out that the British hostages weren't going to be treated, ahem, kindly while held captive in Iran. It shouldn't take a diplomat to figure out why.

Great Britain is our closest ally - in many ways, our fates are linked when it comes to the War in Iraq. Since the UK has marched in lockstep with the US during this war, that quite naturally makes British soldiers a target, as well as American GIs.

Our enemies certainly know this, and I can guarantee that not one of our enemies will ever forget the images like the ones above that came out of Abu Ghraib. As soon as I heard the news that English soldiers were taken hostage by Iran, I shuddered at the thought of the treatment they were going to get at the hands of their captors.

Earlier today, the British soldiers confirmed what many feared would be their fate while in captivity. During a press conference, seven of the soldiers discussed some of the unpleasant aspects of their captivity, including:

• Being blindfolded and subjected to interrogation
• Being told they faced seven years in prison if they did not "confess"
• The soldiers stated that Iranians entered Iraqi waters deliberately to detain them, and that fighting back was not an option
• They were 1.7 nautical miles away from Iranian waters
• Psychological pressure and mind games
• Faye Turney (the only woman held hostage) was isolated in a cell away from the rest of the crew

This kind of puts Abu Ghraib into perspective a little bit. THIS is just one of the reasons that so many people were upset when the scandal broke, including me. First and foremost, it's immoral and a national disgrace - the U.S. cannot and should never, under any circumstances that I can think of, condone such behavior from anyone in its armed forces.

But, the other argument against using such techniques against POWs, enemy combatants, or whatever you wish to call them, is that our soldiers or soldiers of our allies may also be taken prisoner. Besides being morally wrong, this is the principle reason that it's never, ever a good idea to torture prisoners - what goes around has the potential to come around.

I'm very happy and grateful that our friends across the pond are home safe and that nothing terribly bad happened to them, but all accounts I've been reading. (Although I'm quite certain that their time in Tehran was no picnic.)

This really could have escalated into an international incident, and I'm very thankful that it didn't.

A quick footnote to this incident - Tony Blair, for all of the heat he's taken for his almost blind devotion to President Bush and the U.S. War in Iraq, handled this incident exactly as an experienced, in-control politician should.

I wonder how President Bush and Dick Cheney would have handled this if the 15 captives in Iran were American soldiers. I will go to my grave believing that if Democrats would not have taken control of Congress last November, this very well could have led to war between Iran and the United States.

One last thought (at least for this post) about Abu Ghraib - I can still remember Rush Limbaugh saying this about the prison scandal:

(From a New Republic article about his comments, which refer to Limbaugh's comments on his May 5, 2004 radio show)

This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You [ever] heard of need to blow some steam off?

(From Rush Limbaugh's Website)

I'm sorry, folks. I'm sorry. Somebody has to provide a little levity here. This is not as serious as everybody is making it out to be. My gosh, we're all wringing our hands here. We act like, 'Okay let's just die,' you know? 'Let's just give up. What can we do to make these people feel better? Let's just pull out of there, and let's just go. Let's just become a neutral country. Let's just do that.' I mean, it's ridiculous. It's outrageous what's happening here, and it's not -- and it's not because I'm out of touch; it's because I am in touch, folks, that I can understand. This is a pure, media-generated story. I'm not saying it didn't happen; I'm [not] saying the pictures aren't there, but this is being given more life than the Waco invasion got. This is being given more life than almost - it's almost become an Oklahoma City-type thing.

I would love for Rush to spend a few weeks in an Iranian prison camp, or better yet, one run by Al-Qaeda, and have the exact things done to him that a few of our soldiers did to prisoners at Abu Ghraib. But, he's so stupid, I doubt it would even make a difference.

It really is proof positive that regardless of the abuses and misdeeds by our federal government, as long as Republicans are in power, there is a certain element of society that will defend their every action. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter lead the way.