British soldiers get paid for the story of their capture

The ethical outrage of this week has been the news that the British soldiers and sailors who spent two weeks in an Iranian prison after their capture in the Shat al Arab are to be paid to sell their stories to the British tabloids.
It created a bit of outrage in all the right places and led to accusations that they were now being used as propaganda tools by the British government. even though Tony Blair's office has denied this as 'outrageous'. The ex-captives' colleagues are also taking the piss on several military-themed websites. It seems that the idea you sould be able to make money out of your suffering is anathema to the balls-out military tradition of take-it and suffer in silence.
There are serious issues though, such as the use of chequebook journalism and the role of the media in the way that the whole episode was reported. No one comes out of this looking good.