VIDEO:British Marines Can Sell Their Stories

The British department of defense offered the fifteen marines that were held captive for 13 days in Iran to sell their stories to the press.

Even though the usual military rules are being broken, it is obvious that the government want to avoid possible criticism that the captivity of the marines is being held as a national or military secret.

Remember that the British marines and sailors, after their return home, accused Iran for psychological abuse. The claim that in captivity in the military prison, they were tied up and blindfolded, and were subject to constant psychological abuse. In that situation they had two choices: admit that they illegally entered Iran’s territorial waters, and soon be sitting on a plane to Britain, or not to admit the illegal entry to Iran and spend 7 years in prison.

However, there is a large media interest in the story of the captured marines. The Ministry will authorize 15 licenses claiming that these are exceptional circumstances. Many medias have already offered great sums of money to the marines and their families, and each of them could earn up to 250,000 pounds.

This decision of the British Ministry of Defense is reminiscent of the success of the bestseller of the British special forces soldier who under the pseudonym of Andy McNab wrote the book “Bravo Two Zero”. The book is about the failures of the SAS patrols during desert storm in 1991. The SAS patrols, the most elite British military unit, moved to the north of Iraq to disable Saddam’s communications. They were discovered the first morning, and the mission is turned into a chase, in which one by one, they were caught by the Iraqis. Only one of them made it to Syria.

Disgusted by the poor planning and equipment of the patrol, and the even worse attitude of the army towards the captured SAS soldiers, the leader of the patrol quits the army and writes the book under the pseudonym Andy McNab about his war experience. However, the British Ministry of Defense tried to stop the book being published with a law suit. McNab wins the case and despite threats, he publishes the book, which becomes a bestseller. About the same patrol, the book “The One That Got Away” was written by Chris Ryan (also a pseudonym), and two more members of the mentioned patrol and one of their commanders who did not even see the battlefront!

After the publication of the book and film “Bravo Two Zero”, SAS only strengthen their image of super humans, but the image of the British armed forces is seriously damaged.

The Ministry of Defense, whose decision on legalizing the sale of the story about their captivity to the press, was criticized by some politicians and military analysts. They simply want to lessen the pressure of the public and media, and give the marines a chance to openly talk about their experience of the two week captivity.

The unlucky British sailors and marines get a chance to tell their side of the story, and make money from it. It seems like the government is protecting themselves from the responsibility of paying damages for psychological pain from the budget, and are offering a sort of compensation. At the same time, it seems like the navy, whose regular advertising is not working as planned, is trying to create an image of an organization where you can travel, make war, get captured, and then make money from that and become famous.

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