Britain: End of a World Power?

HMS Victory, photographed in 1885.

This was the flagship of the fleet that destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

15 British sailors were captured off the coast of Iraq while engaged in naval operations. Their ship, the frigate HMS Cornwall was miles away. The sailors were taken to Iran and put through the usual Iran hostage treatment. The sailors cracked wide open. They condemned Britain and thanked their Iranian captors at every opportunity and without prompting. The word to best describe their behavior was “loquacious”.

They were released last Friday. They came home to lucrative media deals. In them they said they were in fear of their lives and so on.

In other news, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) refused to air a story about a genuine war hero because it was too positive about the war according to “The Telegraph”, one of the main British newspapers.

“Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle's crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.

"For the BBC, however, his story is 'too positive' about the
conflict."

They were afraid that broadcasting a positive story about the war would anger the vast majority of the viewers because they were against it.

Those are the basic facts of the events of the last few weeks.

One is reminded of the military truism that it takes centuries to build a tradition but only a little while to destroy it. Britain may no longer be a world power. It may have lost the will to be one. I hope that it gets it back.

The problems with these events:

1) Why did the British Navy let their sailors get captured in the first place?

2) Why did the captives go out of their way to suck up the Iranians?

3) Why did these same captives get lucrative media deals back in Britain, while heroes with far more interesting stories get shut out?

Meanwhile, the British government is making the most drastic countries in the country’s history. A century ago Britain’s policy was to have a navy that was larger than the next two navies combined. Soon, the British navy will be the size of Belgium’s. Britain will be inconsequential as a naval power.

This is sad. Britain for centuries was a power for good in the world. I fear that is now just a memory.