should we bother to rescue these 'merchant venturers'
To be fair Tony Blair was was quite happy/keen/falling over himself/ drooling with anticipation at .... ( delete as appropriate) to act as a salesman/facilitator for UK companies employing these "merchant venturers", so yes, maybe there is just a tiny bit of an obligation on HMG to get them the hell out of there.......
Having said that there is also an obligation, IMHO, on HMG to make sure the military are adequately resourced to perform such tasks.