BEHAVIOR REWARDED WILL BE REPEATED

The shame and the humiliation of the West are only beginning.

The Telegraph reports that Tehran openly threatens more kidnappings:

Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity.

And why not?

"Iran has got what it wants. They have secured free passage for smuggling weapons into Iraq without a fight," one US defence department official said.

It is also clear that the Iranian government believes that the outcome has strengthened its position over such contentious issues as its nuclear programme. Hardliners within the regime have been lining up to crow about Britain's humiliation, and indicated that the operation was planned.

Meanwhile, the sailors and marines who disgraced their country and dishonored their uniforms will be allowed to enrich themselves by peddling the tales of their perfidy, thus encouraging the next bunch of British military personnel who come under Iranian guns to surrender without firing a shot, party with their kidnappers, and provide all the propaganda they can to our enemies. Again, from the Telegraph:

The 15 British service personnel held captive in Iran have been given official permission to cash in on their 13-day ordeal by selling their stories to the media.

The Ministry of Defence said it had taken the unusual decision because of the "exceptional circumstances" surrounding their situation.

It means that the eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines can now look forward to five or six-figure payouts.

The MoD said they attracted similar intense media interest as someone who had won the Victoria Cross - the military's highest award for gallantry in the face of enemy fire.

Where once it took gallantry in the face of enemy fire to attract intense media interest, in Tony Blair's New Britain, cowardly surrender will do. It's difficult to believe that the MoD intends anything other than to completely eliminate any fighting spirit in the ranks.

And to compound the disaster, the First Sea Lord has publicly congratulated the sailors and marines who would not fight at sea and who would not resist their captors in any way:

Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, The First Sea Lord, said that he believed they had behaved with "considerable dignity and a lot of courage" during their time in Iranian hands.

He said that "confessions" made by some of the group - including the only woman, Leading Seaman Faye Turney - appeared to have been made under "a certain amount of psychological pressure".

Admiral Band also confirmed that the Navy had suspended all boarding operations in the northern Gulf while it carried out a "complete review" of the incident which led to them being seized.

Without firing a shot, Tehran has humiliated what once was the greatest Navy in the world; Tehran has put an end to search and seizure operations by the Royal Navy in the Gulf; and Tehran has prompted the highest ranking military officials in Britain to publicly praise surrender and collaboration.

And as far as the "psychological pressure" the Britons endured is concerned -- I remember when in 1979, 63 American diplomats and Marines were taken hostage by this same gang of Persian thugs (Ahmadinezad probably among them) -- and 52 of them were held for 444 days. Only one of them cooperated with the kidnappers at all. The rest endured their capitivity stoically, and refused to provide propaganda to the enemy.

The late Admiral James Stockdale was tortured by his communist captors in Viet Nam for seven years -- and to quote his biography on the Wikipedia:

When told by his captors that he was to be paraded in public, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda. When they covered his head with a hat, Stockdale beat himself with a stool until his face was swollen beyond recognition. He told them in no uncertain terms that they would never use him. When Stockdale heard that other prisoners were dying under the torture, he slit his wrists and told them that he preferred death to submission.

The goal of warfare is not to annihilate the enemy and reduce his homeland to dust. The goal of warfare is to reduce the enemy's will to resist. When the enemy no longer has the will to resist, he is defeated. It is not necessary to destroy his cities, or his factories, or his fleet. If he will no longer resist, he is defeated.

The British Navy has shown that it no longer has the will to resist. Its leadership, right up to the First Sea Lord and the Chief of Defence, no longer expect British military personnel to fight the enemy and resist him.

British military power is no longer credible. Oh to be sure, when they have overwhelming numerical and materiel superiority over their adversaries, the Tommies will still swagger, and their officers still roar like lions. But in a close fight, facing equal or even somewhat superior forces, the British have shown that they will choose surrender.

But let us not despair. Let us hope for a change of heart. As the Scripture reminds us, "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion." Let us hope that what may appear to be sleeping dogs will awaken as living lions when next they are threatened.