Britishers II.

This is coolbert:

“Rowe, just because the war will end one day, don’t think that means we have to send you home!!” - - VC interrogator speaking to Nick Rowe, American Special Forces man held captive in Vietnam for five years.

“One morning, I heard the nose of wood sawing and nails being hammered near my cell. I couldn’t work out what it was. Then a woman came into my cell to measure up from head to toe with a tape. She shouted the measurements to a man outside. I was convinced they were making my coffin.”

- - Faye Turney, the only woman in the detained British crew, explaining why she agreed to her captors’ demands to appear on Iranian TV to admit that the crew trespassed in Tehran’s waters.

[there is precedent for the Iranian behaving in such a manner. Colonel Leland Holland, senior U.S. military man present when the embassy in Tehran was taken over by Iranian “students” in 1979, reports that he and the other military personnel taken hostage were subjected to mock executions on a regular basis. The Iranian, according to the Colonel, seemed to derive some sort of pleasure from this, giggling and chuckling as they went through the motions!! These mock executions were carried out in such a manner that the hostages really had the thoughts enter their minds that THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE LAST MOMENTS FOR THEM ON EARTH!!]

As a military man [or woman for that matter!] you ARE EXPECTED to endure hardship if called for, as part of your duties. You may have to put up with extremes of heat, cold, hunger, thirst. Even as a prisoner-of-war, this is expected of you. To the best of your ability, you are EXPECTED to comport yourself with honor and dignity, maintaining discipline, NOT cooperating with the enemy. Again, to the best of your ability. YOU ARE NOT expected to resist extreme forms of maltreatment. If confronted with and subjected to the rack, the red hot iron, thumbscrews, other extreme forms of mistreatment or pain, compliance with the demands of the enemy is NOT considered to be cowardice, treason, etc. HUMAN ENDURANCE HAS A LIMIT, AND IS RECOGNIZED AS BEING SO!!

[John McCain admits that as a prisoner, he did give the enemy in Vietnam more than name, rank, and serial number. That was of course, after long and prolonged physical torture, on top of previous injuries for which he was denied medical treatment. McCain has nothing to ever be ashamed of!!]

I think that with the British prisoners/hostages, the threat and fear was more psychological rather than physical?! Fear that was nonetheless real and palpable. Fear, however, that should have been controlled??!!

coolbert.