Please don't use your outside voice in the house.

There are times when I try, really try, to hold back what feelings are going through me. I do it at times I shouldn't, and gawdalmightly, I regret it.

The capture of fifteen sailors and marines of the Royal Navy by Iran cuts very close to the bone.

I am a now a merchant mariner, but I did a lifetime of service as a naval sailor and a Royal Marine. Every one of them is Royal Navy, and yes, even the marines. Check it out. The "Royals" are RN and proud of it.

The incident in the Shat al Arab waterway sends shivers down my spine. I have commanded ships that sent away boarding parties. The discomfort, tension, fear and misgivings were omnipresent throughout each and every boarding. Most of the time they end up becoming nothing but an inconvenient bore. Then something ugly happens. Like yesterday.

I care about one thing and one thing only. That those sailors and marines are handed back to their countrymen without harm. Period. I will not accept that those human beings become some form of cause to engage in a wanton, knee-jerk killing spree. They were engaged in a compliant boarding and were ambushed - for political reasons.

I am incensed that some non-combatant little fuckwad, with four-fifths of fuck-all worth of military service would even think of suggesting that an event which has not been played out and which has not had the maximum of diplomatic pressure applied is so willing to suggest an act of war, without so much as an indication that it may be defused.

Those are the lives of people with whom I share a history, a heritage, a comradeship and a hope for the future. They are my people.

You can express your uninformed and ridiculous opinion. Gawd knows, I've shed blood and taken a few hits to guarantee that privilege. And I will exercise mine. I will feel free to call you on it.

Until you take your hoity-toity little law degree and your out-of-shape little body across the threshold of a recruiting office door, you are nothing but another flat-faced pencil-neck with too much to say.

I don't care whether you're a Liberal, a Conservative, a Communist or a Martian. You don't even suggest that the lives of my people are worth nothing more than your moment of orgasmic mindlessness.

Is it an act of war? Sure, but only if you're not going to fight it.

Grow up.