Iranian situation

[peter-peter]

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6506361.stm

 

Why the **** are they making our service people wear head scarves?

 

If they are not careful they will end up getting bombed back into the dark ages

THE BEST THING THE UK AND USA CAN DO IS PULL ALL OUR TROOPS OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST, FROM WHERE WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN, THE MONEY SAVED SHOULD BE PUT INTO OUR OWN DEFENCE SYSTEMS AND THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF MONEY SAVED COULD BE PUT TO BETTER USE.

IT IS TIME OUR GOVERNMENT STOPPED PANDERING TO THE WILLS OF THE USA.

LOOK AT SWITZERLAND , NO WARS, LOADS OF BRASS, DOESN'T THIS TELL SOMEBOBY SOMETHING.

NOW AM FAR FROM A PACIFIST JUST THE OPPOSITE, I BELIEVE IN AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH, BUT WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME SOMEBODY POKED US IN THE EYE.

I SAY LET EM ALL GET ON WITH IT AND SAVE OUR CASH AND MILLITARY HARDWARE UNTIL SOMEBODY STEPS OUT OF LINE.

WE HAVE ONLY JUST FINISHED PAYING THE YANKS FOR THEIR LATE HELP IN WW2,

HOW MUCH ARE THEY PAYING US NOW TO HELP THEM OUT OF ALL THE WARS THEY SEEM UNABLE TO WIN.

ANGRY MAN.

[Sundodger]

Peter-Peter,

I recon you have you hit the nailon the head. with your last post. for me I think if we where a bit harder on people like these they would think twice before they did any thing.

 

QUOTE

IT IS TIME OUR GOVERNMENT STOPPED PANDERING TO THE WILLS OF THE USA.

LOOK AT SWITZERLAND , NO WARS, LOADS OF BRASS, DOESN'T THIS TELL SOMEBOBY SOMETHING.

NOW AM FAR FROM A PACIFIST JUST THE OPPOSITE, I BELIEVE IN AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH, BUT WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME SOMEBODY POKED US IN THE EYE.

I SAY LET EM ALL GET ON WITH IT AND SAVE OUR CASH AND MILLITARY HARDWARE UNTIL SOMEBODY STEPS OUT OF LINE.

WE HAVE ONLY JUST FINISHED PAYING THE YANKS FOR THEIR LATE HELP IN WW2,

HOW MUCH ARE THEY PAYING US NOW TO HELP THEM OUT OF ALL THE WARS THEY SEEM UNABLE TO WIN.

[flash]

basically the britich ROE stinks, are serviceman wouldnt have been in that situation if our ROE was different, and u can bet ur life on it, that the iranians new that our ROE wouldnt let the serviceman fight there way out, if the iranians didnt fire on them. we reallt need to reconsider our ROE and change it for the better, in a way the british ROE helps the enemy more then us.

i just hope all of our servicemen and women get home safely.

 

cheers

 

flash

[jacob w h]

The softly, softly approach will win the day and we know that the hostages are fit and well.

We are in no position to invade Iran and I don't think the SAS would have much chance of getting near them.

 

 

We should just let the sas run riot on a few of their bases and see how quick they change there mind

[bullterrier]

I keep reading SAS this & SAS that, but only one person has actually said using them would be wrong.

Iran is a massive country with over 70 million for a population with a lot more younger population than our own. If we attack them in any way does anybody think we will get our service people back alive if we do. Our armed forces are overstretched as it is, no matter how well equipped, trained, motivated & led they are there is not enough of them to fight in another conflict at the moment.

The logistics of a special forces op to release these people is massive(due to the size of Iran), it would take more than a squadron of SAS, possibly including the SFSG as well & a big fleet of helicopters & transport & refuelling aircraft. This doesn`t include the air support to keep the Iranian Air Force on the ground.

I read the book of the U.S. attempt to release the U.S. embassy hostages in the eighties, the Americans asked the British SF how they would have done it. They said they would have done it the same but with more helicopters(but thats with hindsight) and if I remember better pilots(they used Navy but they were inexperienced, the U.S. SF wanted to use Marines but were overuled).

The British military is lacking enourmously in the area of large long haul battlefield helicopters. A lot of this is down to the RAF`s refusal to let the Army have the command of the fleet because the RAF would lose that part of their budget to the Army. Incidentally the Army managed to get it`s own way over proccurring Merlin but the RAF wanted the Blackhawk.

These people will be released, hopefully in the not to distant future, this is getting highly embarrising for Iran(although their leader seems like a complete loony so probably doesn`t care). But doing anything to release them with military force (no matter how justified we are) if it went wrong could be even more embarrising to our country & military than the actual event thats led us to this point.

If it went wrong how many more hostages would the Iranians have ?

That said I believe we don`t even know where they are.

The reason our blokes were taken in the first place was the helicopter that escorted our boats had to refuel,

it was there to (I assume) provide cover at the small boats most dangerous part of their op, the boarding of the ship, had to go & refuel. I f I read correctly the Iranians intercepted our small boats as the crew were leaving the ship. The Iranian boats appeared to have 50.cals mounted on their small boats, ours had the crews small arms. The actual waters that our boats were in have claims laid to them by Iran, Iraq & kuwait, although looking at the charts seen in the papers the Iraqis would become almost land locked if they gave up the idea of these waters being theirs.

[Mungler]

Most informative Bull Terrier, nice one.

 

Whisper sweet nothings to the Iranians for the timebeing and get our servicemen and woman back.

 

Then a nice long think.... a dish best served cold and all that.

[naddan28]

I agree we can't physically do anything but either a credible & visible threat of force backed up with global diplomatic measures. At the moment we are just saying "no, iraqi waters" Iran saying "nope, Iranian Waters" One side has to back down and some creditble threats or PROPER diplomatic measures would provide an incentive for the Iranians to back off.

[muckybear]

I agree we can't physically do anything but either a credible & visible threat of force backed up with global diplomatic measures. At the moment we are just saying "no, iraqi waters" Iran saying "nope, Iranian Waters" One side has to back down and some creditble threats or PROPER diplomatic measures would provide an incentive for the Iranians to back off.

just tell the looney tune **** that the woman was reading the map and we were wrong to be there (WE ALL KNOW THE TRUTH WE WEREN`T IN THERE WATER) but this way we get our peeps out with no conflict jobs a good un there time will come he probally is bullied by his wife and has a little *****

[pin]

Well loony Ahmadinejad has just been on TV, had a good mumble about prophets and the koran, then had a bit of a wibble about the state of the world.

 

The he started going on about easter presents and seems to have agreed to release the sailors.

[Axe]

Fingers crossed. I'm sure both they an their families will be very pleased to see them home.

[Sundodger]

Great news are Boys and Girls are coming home. And what a farce all this stress for them and there families ALL FOR NOTHING, just glad it is all over.

[Mungler]

Great news are Boys and Girls are coming home. And what a farce all this stress for them and there families ALL FOR NOTHING, just glad it is all over.

 

 

Now lets nuke 'em!

 

Come on, the HP agreement has expired, the nukes are all paid up, lets use 'em.

 

Alright then, what about just one, a small one?

 

[Dr W]

Careful you're going to start Shanin off on one of his rants again.

[SNAKEBITE]

Did you see those suits that they made them wear?

Going home or not I wouldn't want to be seen in one of those!

 

Joking aside though good luck to them and I hope that the mental effects are got over with the minimum of hassle.

[Mungler]

Did you see those suits that they made them wear?

Going home or not I wouldn't want to be seen in one of those!

 

 

I know exactly what you mean - I think I and half the Country immediately thought "Borat!"

[Wookie]

Hey, it's free and they got to shake the hand of a president. Not many people can say that. Mind you, I think I'd be bloody livid on the plane home after being made to say I'd read a map wrong/misread GPS. Mark my words, the second they step off the pane, there'll be a bit of swearing.

[SNAKEBITE]

All I can saay is ...........

"14 men and 1 woman, no guesses who was reading the map!"

[Axe]

All I can saay is ...........

"14 men and 1 woman, no guesses who was reading the map!"

[Sundodger]

I see the press are now saying that the rules of engagement should changed to shoot now ask questions later or at least defend our selves from capture. The real answer is that the Royal navy does not have the correct type of vessels to carry out its operations effectively and properly. Again this all down to this ****** ***** goverment and its defence cuts. The Royal Navy needs more ships and ships that can carry out The task that it is intended for. lets see what the goverment make of this now.

[Browning GTS]

Lets plant some mushrooms now

[il cacciatore]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6533069.stm

 

To be fair they were probably treated well under the circumstances. No better or worse than what the British would do if they captured a foreign soldier.

 

Though Iran were probably in the wrong, these waters as I understand it are disputed?

[bullterrier]

Apparently half our frigates are mothballed, thus leaving us with a smaller Navy than we`ve ever had( a little stupid considering we are an island).

I heard somebody saying on the radio about sending minesweapers to the Gulf because they had a shallower draught than our destroyers. This is one of the reasons Cornwall was 11 miles away, she just couldn`t get into the shallow water that the boat the navy were tracking was in. Personally I believe we need a massive injection of cash into our a military to alleviate the problems it has. We should at the very least be able to afford some small fast missile boats that have a good array of MG`s on board & 40mm cannon`s. these could then be used as the mother ships to the ribs that we were using to board the ships in the Gulf. These would be large enough to deter anthying like what has happened, & should they need support we`d have the larger vessels like Cornwall.

The politico`s show support to our forces verbally but don`t back it up with hard cash, the only people that have received any new equipement are the army e.g. minimi, nvg`s (though still not enough), new uniforms, body armour, javelin AT system, bowman radio system(the infantry hate this), new doss bags, boots, goggles, Mastiff & Bulldog armoured vehicles, SA80 A2(most infantry like this now, although still a bit of a stigma attached due to it`s predecessor). The RAF has spent (& wasted) billions on Eurofighter, an excellent aircraft but why did it take so long to come into srevice ? The Harrier & Jaguar haven`t been replaced yet, how long till we get the JSF into service to replace them ? How long till we get our new aircraft carriers ? With the combat our military is involved at the moment a lot of service men believe the RAF need to invest in something more like the A10 Thunderbolt because of it`s durability, ease of service because it`s low tech & due to it`s awesome weapons fit. Putting it bluntly you get more bang for your buck & it scares the **** out of the enemy in these low tech wars. Why can`t we make a more high tech version without detracting from what made this such a fearsome aircraft in the first place.

Our helicopter fleet is pretty much past it`s sell by date, why are we still using Sea King? Our helicopter fleet doesn`t have enough helicopters of the larger type. Oh, & whilst I`m at it why does the RAF keep control of the medium/heavy lift heli fleet(apart fom on a monetary basis) when it`s the army who need to use them on a tactical & supply basis.

Rant over, but it hopefully puts things into perspective when we discuss military action against nations who`d have home advantage. This sort of warfare is not something we are prepared for, I`d hope our military would be able to expand like the German military did in the years before WW11 if we envisaged a military threat beyond our present strength.

Hopefully our armed forces are of suffient quality (I still believe the individual British soldier to be the worlds best)to be able to do this rapidly without diluting their quality should push come to shove. I would have thought their would be plans for this in some dark, dank, secretive room somewhere.

Saying that I hope we don`t get involved in any more wars before finishing the 2 we are involved in. I don`t think we`ll go to war any time soon with Iran but you never know whats around the corner.