Does anyone here think Iran would be so stupid as to torture the captives?
If they did they would have to kill them because the whole world knows if those folks get home and tell the world they were tortured there will be a very harsh response from Britain. How do you think the Bush* Administration would react if it were Americans that were captured and tortured? I would suspect retaliation of a major sort just to remind folks that Americans take care of our soldiers. No I can not believe the English sailors were tortured in any manner but why they would agree to make any public announcements is beyond me. They were intimidated in some manner that is probably a given. Torture though I really don't think so...:shrug:
6. Nothing would surprise me. The letters alone are inidications of duress.
This entire episode is coming from the mullahs, who's understanding of western thought and politics is far from 100% accurate. They are also captured and presumably being held by the Pasdaran.
8. the better they treat them, the worse US and Britain look
they will have a lot more PR points by treating them well despite Britain's' aggressive stance, I personally think this was a deliberate provocation by the Brits.
they wouldn't torture these particular sailors/marines because they are not "high-value" targets and so wouldn't have any top-secret info that would be worth getting at (putting aside the question of morality for the time being).
And from all appearances they seem to be in reasonable spirits (although obviously they have been coerced in some way to make the apologies, it doesn't look like they are high rank or special forces who would be trained to keep quiet and would need more aggressive methods to get them to talk).
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