because I used to be a sailor, and sailors go into harm's way for their service, exposing themselves to possible injury and death in action for the sake of that service, not to mention the inherently hazardous occupation of mariner. I also was peripherally involved in a similar naval hostage situation almost 40 years ago, and I feel psychologically and emotionally connected to that experience in ways that affected me very profoundly, ways I had forgotten until recently. Fighting in a sea battle is one thing, you sign up for that, being terrorized in capitivity and used as a political pawn is something totally different, even if the physical conditions are totally benign.

What infuriates me about this situation is how these men (and women) were let down by their service, how they were failed to be given the protection they deserved, probably for purely "political reasons". This is professional incompetence of the highest order, the Iranians have done this before and there's no excuse for thinking they would not do it again.
But that does not automatically translate to forgiveness for the barbaric treatment (again, no matter how physically benign) they have received from their captors. The only blame I place on the RN, and by extension, their commanders in the USN, is for not being ready and prepared to respond to this incident with deadly and immediate force. But the true villains in this piece are the barbarians who took these sailors hostage. Even if they had been guilty as charged of trespassing, an unlikely but not impossible situation, they were there under orders and do not deserve to be treated as criminals. These were troops in uniform flying their national colors, and they deserve to be treated with respect EVEN IF their activities were illegal.

In the face of the sea, every mariner feels a responsibility to other seamen, he will even endanger himself and his ship to rescue a shipwrecked enemy who only hours earlier may have been engaged in desperate combat with him. But as much as am infuriated by our failure to have anticipated, prevented, or avenged this act of piracy, I am even more furious at the barbarians who carried it out.