Originally Posted by
ShyGuy
The Vincennes screwed up. Pure and simple. You wrote it off as “fog of war” and then have the arrogance to dismiss Iran Air for being there in the first place out of Bandar Abbas. No sympathy is the typical arrogance of Americans that is hated by those overseas. And by seas, I mean by water. Not by what you visually see. Just wanted to clarify that.
My perspectives on geopolitics are actually pretty nuanced.
Just in this particular case the facts are black and white.
1) Don't operate airliners into a hot conflict, especially ...
1) A conflict YOU started.
2) The airlines are launching out of YOUR primary military base that YOU are using to support YOUR attacks. What could possibly go wrong
The spin doctors then latch onto some USN lessons learned to try to flip the script and make the good guys the bad guys. Regime didn't give a rats arse about those people, and were probably hoping something like this would happen.
No Sympathy.
Worth noting that you can contrast Vincennes with the Cole. I'd say the Vincennes CO navigated the grey area better than the Cole CO. One came home with all his people.