Apparently one piece of pertinent information that was left out of the story was that the British Marines were part of a composite force made up of Royal Marines, Emirati troops, Dutch and Canadian troops and (surprise surprise) U.S. Marines as well. So if U.S. Marines did surrender, as claimed, they surrendered to U.S. Marines among others.
Marine Corps Rejects Reports That It ‘Surrendered’ To British Forces During Exercise
Yeah I saw that and watched so many people overreact on YouTube. the design of the exercise put the 3rd Marine Regiment into the worst possible scenario in desert warfare: close quarter battle in urban terrain without the benefit of its key advantage: brut firepower.
So if U.S. Marines did surrender...
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So maybe the training objective WAS accomplished.
After the disgraceful debacle in Afghanistan its hard not to see things in this light.
(Note also that our diplomatic embarrassments of late are also evidence of this mentality. Displays of national strength are not appreciated by this regime.)