The feeling of relief had barely passed at news that the 15 British sailors had been released by Iranian authorities when the British government decided, in an unprecedented move, to allow the sailors to sell their stories to the media. This marks a new chapter in the debacle. The first-hand reports of how the Iranians had behaved towards their captives contrasted sharply with the television images being broadcast in Iran of the sailors smiling, playing table tennis and smoking. These reports followed a compulsory de-brief (read coaching session) by the flim-flam merchants at the Ministry of Defence. Our government seems to be lobbing “PR boomerangs” instead of “PR missiles”.

Commentators have alleged that the government virtually told the sailors to sell their stories in an attempt to generate more propaganda about the situation. The inimitable Max Clifford has advised that it is a PR exercise that could back fire, eroding any good will towards the sailors by the public by giving the impression that they are profiteering from the whole episode. It also raises serious questions about the Official Secrets Act and the experiences of other troops. Stoicism it seems is also a victim of this sorry episode.

Accounts by some of the sailors claimed they weren’t physically tortured but felt that they had been “mentally tortured”. For people that had been mentally tortured they seemed remarkably composed. The comparison with the detainees illegally held and tortured at the gulag at Guantanamo Bay seems inescapable.

Inevitably, the focus has been on the sole female sailor, Faye Turney. The obvious criticism about the focus on Ms Turney is the one that if females are considered equal to their male counterparts in the armed forces, then why focus on Ms Turney? She is reputed to have signed a six-figure sum for “her story”. She claims to have been measured up for a coffin. Alarmingly, the media are emphasising the sexual aspect of a white British female at the mercy of the filthy Iranian hordes. True to form allegations emerged such as “I feared being raped by them” and “I was stripped down to my knickers in a dingy cell”. The reality was that Ms Turney’s ordeal was no doubt unpleasant but rather than facing sexual assault, she seems to have been given an hijab. Statistically, she would more likely suffer a greater chance of being raped by a colleague than one of her Iranian captors. Ms Turney should be thankful she wasn’t detained by Steven Green, Sergeant Paul Cortez, James Barker, Private Jesse Spielman, and Private Bryan Howard of the US army. They broke into the home of a 14 year old Iraqi girl in Mahmudiya. They murdered her family as they preceded to gang rape her and then to dispose of the “evidence” they then shot her, doused her body in kerosene and set her alight. The subtext of Ms Turney’s allegation is also reminiscent of the white rape myth promulgated in the deep south of the US both during and after the era of slavery where black males were often the victims of mob justice at the mere allegation of the rape of a white woman. D.W Griffith’s “Birth of A Nation” is no more crude.

The public reaction, including that of fellow troops, however seems to be a little more discerning with criticism of the development being derided as inappropriate and opportunistic. The government’s motive is to whip up public anger in the hope of making any future military attack on Iran politically palatable. It is also the logical extension of a policy pursed by our government and that of the US. In Iraq the occupying powers have used private mercenary firms such as Aegis to carry out deeds that would be politically unacceptable by their own armies. This privatisation of war has now lead to the privatisation of propaganda. Just when they thought they had escaped the role of playing the “propaganda pawn” it seems the sailors are now destined to continue this role even after their “liberation”.

The whole sorry episode should be seen for what it truly is. Not an anomaly about GPS coordinates but a symptom of our government’s failed foreign policy. Is there anything more pressing than squandering our standing in the world?