Female British mariner hostage

[lynbrown]

What do people think of women being in the front line? Imagine what could happen if it turns out she is pregnant - it could happen if she has been on home leave recently.

[whiffey]

She voluntarily enlisted in an armed service, which implies that she knew the consequences, and she has said as much on TV interviews.

The whole thing is a bloody disgrace. If the West values its character and way of life, then the Iranian administration should be taken out militarily asap. It might be illegal ? Ha Ha International Law is a farce. Fabricate an excuse, get in there and get rid of the evil. It can only delay the inevitable though.

[Zen]

It could happen without being on home leave !!!
Shouldn't smoke if she was pregnant !!!!!!!

[Lonnie]

My view is that she shouldn't have been there, women have no place on the front line, a case in point is Israel, they found the the female of the species, because of the height, weight and muscle distributation, couldn't carry as much, or march and run as much as the men, they also found that during their time of the month, some women become unpredictable, and as such, do not put women on the front line, because they would hold up their comrades, and also endanger them.

Another point, while I was serving, in the British Army, our regiment had the first female Adjutant, we were a front line unit, and the male officers were round her like a bee to honey.

How many sex discrimination cases have been brought on our ships, since women were allowed to serve on them?, and how many before?.

I think that speaks for itself.

[curiosity]

She shouldn't be there, nothing to do with capabilities, but when she decided to be a mother, she should at least attempt to keep herself alive long enough to do the job properly, yes that means (in anticipation of responses!!) don't smoke, drink, bungee jump, eat too many cream cakes, etc etc. But this is the front line...a tad more obviously dangerous, no?

[stokeace]

we ought to send in the sas to rescue the hostages asap if it was prince harry being held captive in a few months time the whole of the british army would be tearing iraq apart to rescue him.iran needs to be taught a lesson in the strongest possible way.

[saintpeter48]

they are just a buhch of whimps these 15, what ever happened to the good old british stiff upper lip brigade, they should never ever have agreed to being filmed, name rank and number is all they had to say. that woman looked like a scared rabbit, caught in headlights, i'd hate to have her as a leader in a crisis, god help us all, we are quickly becoming the most hated nation in the world behind the yanks. we should cut ourselves off from everyone, go it alone and leave the rest of the world to destroy itself, we should never be in iraq, get out now and leave them to it, look after number one and not worry about others.

[matt66]

Whiffey...ask yourself this question

who is further away from their international boundary..the iranians or the brits

as for evil....your interpretation of evil and your solution beggars belief. Hope the iranians dont think as you do....they wont they are much more civilised.

[Le Chat]

Well, I think it's a disgrace that men are in the armed forces. How can they be expected to give it 100% when they have children at home. They are fathers first and their responsibility is to be at home or at the very least in the same country,looking after their family. What would happen if one were to die? They would leave a widow with small children struggling to make ends meet.
The argument is ridiculous!

[Gromit]

There are 15 captives but reading the papers and watching the television you would think there was only one - the female one. After the Turney woman, how many other catives can you name (without looking it up). Not many. The media need an angle, and the angle on this story is that one of the catives is female.

The news last night showed prayers being said at her local church. There was no evidence that she had ever visited this church or knew any of the people there. The media didn't bother to go the the 14 other captives' nearest churches.

The fact that she is female has nothing at all to do with this story, but the hidden agenda is that she should be at home, having babies and looking after her husband and the fighting should be left to men.

[IggyB]

i have no problems with women being on the front line and think the arguments against it are blow out of all proportion - i do find it slightly offensive the way the media have only focused on one captive rather than all of them - but as said that is the media for you

[anotheoldgit]

I would like all these people who shout send in the SAS, to explain how this operation would be carried out.

Taking into account that first we do not know where they are being held, Iran is a large country. Then we do not know if they are all being held in the same location. But persuming we know all this, how do we get a squad of SAS men there?

Fast motor boat? isn't this how the hostages were captured in the first place, I would think the Iranians have their waters pretty well covered.

Helicopter? Their jets would blast them out the sky as soon as they entered their air space. So all that is left is to enter overland.

Taking into account they were lucky enough to find them all together in one location, and they managed to overpowered their guards. They would still be left with the arduous task of transporting all the hostages over many miles of unfriendly territory, with half the Iranian forces in hot pursuit.

These success stories only happens on the silver screen, not in real life. You may not agree, and still call for the SAS to be sent in, but first please explain how you would plan the operation.

[Supernick]

I can't help thinking that if there was an hysterical story in the papers along the lines of "Repressed Iranian Women Refused Entry To The Army!!!" then everyone would be going mental about the backwards mentality. Who would have thought that rather a percentage of people actually believe that his is correct?

The bottom line for me, is that if you're good enough, then you're in, and I don't care what gender you are. There are tons of women out there that would be considerably better on the front line than me, and so they have more right than me to be there if they wish. Are we seriously suggesting that mothers should not be allowed to do certain jobs because they have children? Where is the logical end to that argument? Should they not be allowed to operate heavy machinery, or indulge in extreme sports? Perhaps they should stay at home and devote 100% of their time to the kids?