In Memory of Iran Air Flight 655
Today is Monday, 3 July 2006.
As has been previously noted in this space, it was the policy of the Reagan-Bush regime to support, financially and militarily, the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist Party in its war of conquest against Iran (1981-1988). This war was a criminal war of aggression under international law, specifically as codified by the Nuremberg Trials.
Two key elements of this support were Operation Earnest Will (July 1987-December 1988), the Navy’s escorting of oil tankers carrying oil of nations (especially Kuwait) also supporting Iraq, and Operation Prime Chance (August 1987-December 1988), a largely-clandestine effort to prevent Iranian efforts to attack American-flagged tankers carrying oil in support of the Iraqi war effort. The latter also involved covert American military aggression against Iranian military assets.
On 3 July 1988, the U.S.S. Vincennes, an Aegis-equipped Ticonderoga Class cruiser, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, murdering all 290 aboard, including 66 children. (Aegis is an integrated surface-to-air weapons system, designed to neutralize airborne threats.) At the time, the Reagan-Bush regime claimed the Vincennes was in international waters, and had fired because radar showed the Iranian civilian airliner was turning toward the Vincennes, as if in attack mode.
It was soon known the Iranian civilian airliner was in an authorized civilian flight path, on a scheduled flight, and was turning away from the Vincennes; Admiral William J. Crowe later admitted the Vincennes was illegally in Iranian waters. On 6 November 2003, the International Court of Justice held that the Navy's actions in the Gulf had been unlawful.
The killings have been variously attributed to the aggressiveness of the captain of the Vincennes and to the generally aggressive character of Operation Prime Chance.
There can be no doubt where the ultimate blame resides: in the decision of the Reagan-Bush regime to conspire with Iraq in a criminal war of aggression.
A month after the murders, Vice President George H.W. Bush declared, "I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what it has done. I don't care what the facts are.”
(It is evident that George W. Bush has inherited his father’s keen moral sense and values.)
Yes, war is a messy business, and you can’t make omelets without breaking eggs. In euphemism, it’s called “collateral damage”. The latter means that one has chosen to attack a target, regardless of the knowledge that one may also destroy noncombatants. In ethics, the Law of Unintended Consequences applies: once one acts, one is responsible for all consequences, intended or not. Period. End of story.
Collateral damage, as a doctrine, is remarkably elastic, since it pretends one is responsible only for the outcomes one intended. One could thus reasonably argue, under this doctrine, that the intended consequence of 9/ll was harm to the United States as a country, and that the deaths of “enemy noncombatants” were collateral damage.
I find such an argument absurd and repugnant, but then, I find the equivalent arguments of Warlord W. Bush, etc. equally absurd and repugnant. For most folks, ethics is reduced to merely a matter of whose ox is being gored.
______________________________
On this day in history:
1863 – Pickett’s Charge fails to break the US Army lines at Gettysburg, the battle ends, and the Army of Northern Virginia soon withdraws south, ending the most serious threat of invasion
1883 - Novelist Franz Kafka born (died 1924)
As has been previously noted in this space, it was the policy of the Reagan-Bush regime to support, financially and militarily, the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist Party in its war of conquest against Iran (1981-1988). This war was a criminal war of aggression under international law, specifically as codified by the Nuremberg Trials.
Two key elements of this support were Operation Earnest Will (July 1987-December 1988), the Navy’s escorting of oil tankers carrying oil of nations (especially Kuwait) also supporting Iraq, and Operation Prime Chance (August 1987-December 1988), a largely-clandestine effort to prevent Iranian efforts to attack American-flagged tankers carrying oil in support of the Iraqi war effort. The latter also involved covert American military aggression against Iranian military assets.
On 3 July 1988, the U.S.S. Vincennes, an Aegis-equipped Ticonderoga Class cruiser, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, murdering all 290 aboard, including 66 children. (Aegis is an integrated surface-to-air weapons system, designed to neutralize airborne threats.) At the time, the Reagan-Bush regime claimed the Vincennes was in international waters, and had fired because radar showed the Iranian civilian airliner was turning toward the Vincennes, as if in attack mode.
It was soon known the Iranian civilian airliner was in an authorized civilian flight path, on a scheduled flight, and was turning away from the Vincennes; Admiral William J. Crowe later admitted the Vincennes was illegally in Iranian waters. On 6 November 2003, the International Court of Justice held that the Navy's actions in the Gulf had been unlawful.
The killings have been variously attributed to the aggressiveness of the captain of the Vincennes and to the generally aggressive character of Operation Prime Chance.
There can be no doubt where the ultimate blame resides: in the decision of the Reagan-Bush regime to conspire with Iraq in a criminal war of aggression.
A month after the murders, Vice President George H.W. Bush declared, "I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what it has done. I don't care what the facts are.”
(It is evident that George W. Bush has inherited his father’s keen moral sense and values.)
Yes, war is a messy business, and you can’t make omelets without breaking eggs. In euphemism, it’s called “collateral damage”. The latter means that one has chosen to attack a target, regardless of the knowledge that one may also destroy noncombatants. In ethics, the Law of Unintended Consequences applies: once one acts, one is responsible for all consequences, intended or not. Period. End of story.
Collateral damage, as a doctrine, is remarkably elastic, since it pretends one is responsible only for the outcomes one intended. One could thus reasonably argue, under this doctrine, that the intended consequence of 9/ll was harm to the United States as a country, and that the deaths of “enemy noncombatants” were collateral damage.
I find such an argument absurd and repugnant, but then, I find the equivalent arguments of Warlord W. Bush, etc. equally absurd and repugnant. For most folks, ethics is reduced to merely a matter of whose ox is being gored.
______________________________
On this day in history:
1863 – Pickett’s Charge fails to break the US Army lines at Gettysburg, the battle ends, and the Army of Northern Virginia soon withdraws south, ending the most serious threat of invasion
1883 - Novelist Franz Kafka born (died 1924)
posted by HH at 9:37 AM
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