Good letter Kevin. I am curious why Terry Garlock sees criticizing the British Troops directly doesn't fall into the category of "criticizing troops?" These are our allies and should be entitled to the same consideration and respect that we demand for our own troops. Yet he sees questioning the political leadership that got us into this war as "lack of support for troops." If we ask why our strategy and vision of this war has no goals, we are "criticizing the troops." If we demand our troops not be used as Nation Builders and Policemen (both promised us by Bush in 2000),we are accused of "not supporting our troops."
Terry, how can you interpret us demanding that our troops be given the tools to accomplish the mission, a vision and strategy (that works) to accomplish the mission, defined mission goals, and a valid reason for war in the first place as "not supporting out troops?" Do you really think blind obedience and unquestioned support of the current situation really "supports the troops?" Yet you openly criticize troops of our allies and their actions in a situation that none of us understand.

Sure you were in VietNam. But so were thousands of others. Were you captured? No. And even if you had been, that was totally different than what the Brits endured.

How about you do what you demand of us, and respect the troops?

The man was just giving his opinion, isn't that what we all do on here, and not to make you mad but I agree with a lot of what he says. I don't fault them for being captured, but I think their conduct afterwards could have been better. I also think you went through worse in your first year at the academy and me in boot camp, but maybe not, I don't know. Thats how I feel be it good or bad.

I yam what I yam...Popeye

Good letter.

I wish we could all go back before yesterday when everyone on here were nicer to each other. I don't like to take sides. I have a lot of respect for most of the people who post on here.

Do I still get that ride in your airplane? How about Enigma, Denise and the others? Do they?

Take care
Tug

Well written and a lot of self-restraint! Bas-MAV could learn from your example!

"when visiting the Middle East region" -- SOLDIER Faye Turney in a head scarf was NOT "visiting"!

"Were the troops drugged, tortured, sleep-deprived? We don’t know." -- Not according to comments made since release, nor do they appear tortured in any way in the pictures.

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BBC News: "Outrage" at sailors' treatment

The Mirror's headline "Outrage" reflects the widespread mood of anger.

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Some of Turney's written statements:

"I am writing to you as a British service person who has been sent to Iraq, sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments."

"I believe that for our countries to move forward, we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq, and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives."

"Whereas we hear and see on the news the way prisoners were treated in Abo-Ghrayb and other Iraqi jails by British and American personnel, I have received total respect and faced no harm."

"It is now our time to ask our government to make a change to its oppressive behaviour towards other people.”

"The Iranian people are kind, considerate, warm, compassionate and very hospitable. They have brought me no harm, but have looked after me well. I have been fed, clothed and well cared for."

"Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?"

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I know that she seems to be reading the DNC Talking Points, but the video caused "outrage" in London.

Turney said after being released, “There was nothing damaging to security in anything I wrote, I made sure of that. And I never meant a word of it.”

She said that she "felt like a traitor" for agreeing to her captors' demands to appear on Iranian TV.

After their release last week, the crew members told reporters in Britain they were subjected to constant psychological pressure in detention.

In an attempt to dispute that claim, Iran broadcast new video Sunday showing some of the crew playing chess and watching television during their captivity. The crew members could be heard laughing and chatting.

The 15 British sailors and Marines captured by Iran were blindfolded, bound, held in solitary confinement and subjected to "constant psychological pressure" during their 13-day ordeal, they said.

Some of the group were lined up while weapons were cocked, making them fear they would be executed.
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Interesting editorial in the Washington Post:

Not only does the Iranian president get to look magnanimous in releasing the hostages, but he gets to look wise. And we in the West get to look humiliated, foolish and weak.

Just because we may not "feel" humiliated doesn't mean we're not. In the eyes of Iran and other Muslim nations, we're wimps. While the West puts mothers in boats with rough men, Muslim men "rescue" women and drape them in floral hijabs.

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Headline in the Telegraph (UK):

Faye a heroine? That's an insult to our dead soldiers

"They're not gonna break me. I'm still here," she said, as if she had endured having her toenails pulled out by the Gestapo following a six-year incarceration in a concentration camp.

As if she had done something more valiant than survive, and survive without distinction at that. What an insult, not just to everyone who has served in our Armed Forces, but to the rest of us as well, those who are usually proud to call ourselves British.

Yes, it was bad enough when Turney was grinning for the Iranian cameras and being lightly coerced into writing screeds of damaging propaganda. It got worse when she returned, blubbing to the highest bidder.

Please, Faye Turney. Don't come back to Britain pretending to be a heroine. That is just too much to bear.

Yet the suspicion remains that this ragbag of sailors would be hard pushed to collect the pedalo [colloquially referred to as paddle boats] fares on a boating pond without making a hash of it.

Yet how one wishes that the two officers ostensibly in charge of the party had urged a bit more restraint and discipline, particularly when they were taking their farewells of President Ahmadinejad in front of the world's media. A simple order not to smile, to stand up straight, to refuse to shake hands with their captors would have gone a long way - a very long way - to boost tattered British military credibility.

Matters did not improve once the hostages were returned to their Ministry of Defence handlers, who chaperoned their journey home and should have advised them better on what was to follow. Even leaving those ludicrous Iranian goody bags on the plane would have been a huge step in the right direction.

What had started off as a routine patrol on the Shatt al Arab estuary has ended up with some serious questions being asked about the calibre of people who serve in our Armed Forces, a body of men and women who once strove to represent heroism and sacrifice, but now seem content with cash and celebrity.

For the hundreds of soldiers who have died in this conflict, there is no tomorrow. If only Faye Turney had had the dignity to remember this before she sang like a canary to the tabloid press.

Although I am extremely disappointed with the behavior of the British captives, I blame it on a lack of proper training. They all acted in the same manner, I believe, because they were trained, or not trained in this case, how to conduct themselves in this situation. The Brits obviously don’t put their frontline troops through SERE school.

Maximus

-I don't think they'll be making a "bridge over river Kwai" movie about this one.

M

Most army veterans will agree with the above letter to the editor.