Seen this a few times and I thin it is a catoluge of errors from the USAF or US navy whoever was in charge of this operation. First error the pilots changed radio frequency so that the British could not make contact with them, they changed the frequency back but at that point it was to late, secondly we know the pilots were bombing buildings and then asked for permission to fire, they meant the tanks the operators thought they meant the buildings both parties should have been crystal clear on exactly what the pilots wanted to fire on, thirldy the radio operators should have got up to date information on British troop movements a 3 minute phone call would have prevented this needless death.
The thing is that while there is no malice on the pert of the pilots and they should not be punished as they acted in line with procedure it clearly shows why the Pentagon tried to ban this tape because it shows incompotence in the military. Also somebody somewhere needs to look at the way the US conducts itself in the military the US has a horrendous record in terms of blue on blue on friendly fire incidents aome of which defy belief.
The incident itself was understandable: the pilots were inexperienced, it was their first mission, and many errors were made, which can be learned from, but the lying afterwards is a different matter. Saying no such video of the insident even existed was a snub to - we are repeatedly told - America's strongest ally. Unforgivable. US high command or whoever deals with these things hoped it would be burried forever, and if this video hadn't been leaked by someone, they would have hidden it for good. That's disgraceful.
02-07-2007 06:46 AM
