I have been reading the recorded remarks of some of the British sailors and marines. The more I read, the worse it looks—for Britain, I mean, now plainly in its last days as a nation.

Some of the Iranian sailors were becoming deliberately aggressive and unstable.

Imagine—military personnel being aggressive! None of that in H.M. armed forces!

The questions were aggressive and the handling rough, but it was no worse than that.

I guess that is what they were so effusively thanking Ahmadinejad for.

We all, at one time or another, made a conscious decision to make a controlled release of non-operational information.

Some of us further decided to make appearances on Iranian TV, insulting our country and praising the Tehran dictatorship.

She [the female sailor] is coming to terms with what has happened to her - and not only Faye and her family, but all of us are finding the press focus very uncomfortable, difficult - and we specifically request you give all of us the space and privacy we need, when we return to our homes.

The U.K. armed forces, you see, are not a military establishment at all—more like a 12-step program for self-discovery.

The pressures that we were subjected to were quite diverse in the way it [sic] was carried out. It was mainly psychological and emotional.

They yelled at us and lied to us. Can you blame us for groveling to them?

On arrival at London Heathrow, we were given the news that four UK servicemen and a civilian interpreter had been killed in Iraq. We would like to pass on our thoughts and condolences to the families of those who died serving their country.

Oh, I am sure those families appreciate your concern—given that their loved ones were killed by an IED very likely assembled in Iran and shipped across the border by Iranian soldiers, while you were yukking it up with Li'l Sqinty and his pals.

I cannot imagine how patriotic Englishmen feel about this. (Though you can get some idea from the comments posted to the web sites of UK newspapers like the Telegraph.) I am no longer a British citizen, having taken up UScitizenship 5 years ago. Even so, I am burning with shame at this disgrace to British honor. And from the Royal Navy—the Senior Service—of all places!

I shall watch with interest what happens to Britain over the next few years. I shan't care, though. However bad it is, they have it coming. Goodbye, Britain.

Steyn replies:

Derb, I agree that this incident was a pitiful humiliation for the Royal Navy and also for Britain. It also seems clear that this mission was poorly conceived from the start: If you can't outgun a couple of Iranian speed boats, you shouldn't be policing the shallows of the Shatt al-Arab in the first place.

However, the language you deplore - "Some of the Iranian sailors were becoming deliberately aggressive and unstable", "Throughout our ordeal we faced constant psychological pressure" - seems less a reflection on these men than yet more evidence of how therapeutic psychobabble has become the default mode of our culture - even unto the military. Indeed, insofar as you can use martial talk, it's only for the bloodless pseudo-battles of politics - Clinton's "War Room", etc. A year ago, I reviewed a book on this very topic:

From the bloody battles of history, strategies for winning the subtle social game of everyday life.

So Alexander the Great and the Duke of Wellington can teach you strategies for beating Darlene in Accounts to the big promotion, but our fighting men talk like they're guesting on Oprah.