[jambutty]

If I were one of the captured 15 sailors and marines or indeed the rest of the crew of HMS Cornwall I would be asking why the ship was 8 miles away from the boarding party. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6501555.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6502805.stm Even at her best speed (30 knots plus) the ship would take at least 15 minutes to get back to them and in that time a lot could and as it turns out did happen. To move the ship that far away was at best stupid and at worst criminally negligent especially as it was known that the Shatt al-Arab border between Iraq and Iran had been in dispute for decades – although an agreement had been reached in1978. To compound the folly Cornwall’s unarmed Lynx helicopter was stationed above the boarding party but had to return to Cornwall as fuel was running low. After the 2004 incident where half a dozen marines and sailors were arrested for allegedly straying over the Shatt al-Arab waters border into Iranian territory, the Cornwall’s captain should have been aware that a similar incident was always on the cards.

Vice Admiral Charles Style said the sailors had been "ambushed" in the Gulf after searching a vessel and their detention was “unjustified and wrong”. Well he got the last bit right but just how do you ambush someone in the open sea? Just where are the trees, large rocks or buildings where someone can hide unseen. Have the Iranians invented a teleportation machine and their gunboats just appeared out of nowhere? No! Of course not! That’s silly! So they had to come from somewhere and in doing so they would have been visible on the Cornwall’s radar screens long before they reached the boarding party. How come no one yelled out, “Half a dozen unidentified boats approaching the Indian merchant vessel at speed!”

If HMS Cornwall had stayed on station within half a mile or less of the merchant ship being boarded this incident would not have happened.