By Steve Hynd
Earlier today, veteran Channel Four News reporter Lindsey Hilsum reported that US Marines engaged in a rescue mission for one of two pilots of an F-15E which had gone down over Benghazi, Libya had shot at and wounded the Libyans who had already rescued the two airmen. Following a pattern which has become depressingly familiar from Afghanistan, a US spokesman promptly issued a "100%" denial that any such shooting had occurred.
But then Hilsum interviewed eyewitnesses, including a Colonel from the rebel army and one of the wounded.
Pilot number one, who was scarcely injured, was taken to the military authorities in Benghazi from where he was quickly handed over to the Americans, writes Lindsey Hilsum.
But a rescue mission was mounted for pilot number two, and this is where what could have been comic turned sour. Osprey aircraft came in, all guns blazing, assuming - as the American military tends to do � that this was hostile territory.
"We are disturbed about the shooting because if they'd given us a chance we would have handed over both pilots," said Colonel Sayid. "This shooting created panic."
Worse than that, several bystanders were injured, amongst them 43-year-old Hamad Abdul Ati. We found him in Jala hospital in Benghazi, with multiple shrapnel and bullet wounds, and a broken arm. He didn�t understand why the Americans had been so aggressive in their rescue mission.
"We consider that whoever is shot down or a prisoner of war, we should save him and hand him over," he told me from his hospital bed. "But another plane shot at me and Hamdy my son. I have shrapnel in my hand."
Hospital staff told us that 20-year-old Hamdy�s injuries were far worse, and he was undergoing an operation to amputate part of one leg.
Apparently the standard operating procedure of the US military nowadays is to deny hurting or killing civilians right up until other reports show they are bullshitting. That's usually followed by an insicere apology and the offer of the price of a couple of sheep (or the actual sheep) in compensation.
Hilsum writes: "the local Libyans do not seem resentful, they still want the coalition forces to keep operating." How long will that continue if there are other similiar incidents, possibly with fatalities?
Update: the US military, which had earler said it was investigating, has now confirmed that shots were fired during the rescue. When do they hand out the sheep?
Roger, this is a bad picture of US support. But how can you say you wouldn't have done the same thing?
ReplyDeleteYou train Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen to kill. Not to be the face of diplomacy. It's called the Fog of War and it's been in every conflict known to man. When you're in a high state of readiness, you do exactly as you've been training. You defend yourself and you're objective whether is it American, Afghan, Mexican, or other. Their objective was obviously the pilot and not the unknown personnel advancing on their objective. Until you have been told to go into a place where you know there is hostility toward you and everything you stand for, how can you judge them for doing exactly what their government trains and pays them to do?
I notice you said a "US Spokesman" made a (probably) bullshit statement. But was that spokesman a) a member of the US military and b) involved at all with the operation? Or more likely, was he just an idiot that spoke out of turn?
Solution: Send in fucking Senators to do the job if you want to cry about the military doing what it is designed to do.
Agreed with Not a Hypocrite in the sense that sending in armed, trained and willing killers into a conflict situation will usually mean that killing will be done. Whether killing is done to the "bad guys" or "good guys" as our "fucking senators" have defined them this month is quite beside the point.
ReplyDeleteThat some number of the those killers will end by doing things like posing for photos, all smiles, next to murdered corpses should not be shocking. That military/govt. reps telling untruths to our own citizens on whose behalf the killers supposedly are sent should likewise be expected. That our enemies increase in number and untold, multivariate consequences of these deeds follow on for years and years should be fully anticipated.
That our collective moral compass spins wildly out of control as said fucking senators try to explain just why it is that ruthless dictators who have been our clients are behaving as ruthless dictators and therefore cannot supported...even as we continue to support other ruthless dictators in other nations that are also sending in their trained killers who also do killing (again, whether to good guys or bad guys as our fucking senators have defined them this month is quite beside the point) should absolutely not shock, astound, mortify or embarrass those who have become enured to the festivities
And so, yawns and "duhs" issue forth from the masses like the bleating of sheep. God Bless.
Comment of the month, 1MaNLan!
ReplyDeleteRegards, Steve
You shoulda seen my peer group of draftees when I was conscripted in 1965.
ReplyDelete