Originally Posted by
rickair7777
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.
The facts are black and white, while you excused the Vincennes as “fog of war.” It’s black and white when you want to make it black or white. The Iran Iraq war had been going on 8 yrs. You can’t just shut air travel down for 8 yrs.
The latest technological advancements inside the Vincennes with its AEGIS system was the best for the late 80s. They effed up. They identified a climbing airliner at 250 knots, as a diving F14 with “increasing” airspeed. With what ordinance was a single F14 diving towards the Vincennes, no one knows. Certainly not an Exocet missile.
Cole was refueling at port when it was hit. Vincennes had one helicopter take fire, that heli made it back, all US lives were safe at that moment, when the commander decided to engage those boats and moved his ship further into harms way. Only one was actively trying to FAFO at the moment of attack.