Okay, that headline is more euphonious than accurate, not to say meaningful, so here’s the gist of what I'm trying to say: Politico has a story up by Eliana Johnson claiming that Donald Trump held off bombing Iran on the basis of comments on Fox News by retired four star Jack Keane, to wit:
“Our viewers may have forgotten, but during the tanker war in the late ‘80s when Reagan did take some action, we actually made a mistake,” Keane said, referring to President Ronald Reagan. “We had a USS warship shoot down an Iranian airliner in Iranian airspace. Two-hundred ninety people killed. Sixty-six of them were children. And we took that for a Tomahawk F-14. That was clearly a mistake by the ship's crew in doing that. And we acknowledged that we made a horrific mistake.”
Eliana goes on to say that she has it on good authority that President Trump pronounced himself “spooked” by the story and held off on the bombing as a result. Well, speculating on actual events occurring in that maelstrom of ego, ignorance, and vanity that forever swirls in Donald Trump’s cranium is a mug’s game if ever there was one, but if the account is true we all certainly owe the general a solid, and a serious one at that.
However, I certainly won’t resist remarking that the general’s account of what actually went down back in the day isn't precisely le mot juste, and, because Eliana is silent as well, I will take it on myself to supply that mot juste. What happened was that the American warship, the U.S.S. Vincennes, was sailing in Iranian waters, in specific violation of its orders. Although it had notification of the Iranian Airlines flight, flight number 655, which was traveling in its regularly scheduled flight path about 20 minutes behind schedule, the crew of the Vincennes shot it down anyway. The Defense Department lied about the fact that the Vincennes was in Iranian waters, and later then Vice President George Bush gave a speech at the UN during which he claimed that the aircraft had been outside its flight path, which was another lie. The Reagan Administration refused to apologize, and eventually gave the commander of the Vincennes a certificate of commendation after the vessel completed its voyage. The U.S. continued to refuse to apologize during Bush’s single term as president, leaving it up to that damn hippie Bill Clinton to (slightly) cleanse America’s shameful record in the matter. Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan, who covered the story back in the day, has more on “one of the Pentagon’s most inexcusable disgraces.”
I’m glad that General Keane had the nerve to mention on Fox News that the U.S. murdered 66 children. And if Donald Trump flinched at the thought of murdering more children, well, I’m touched and impressed. But let’s not forget the full story, the real story, of “one of the Pentagon’s [and America’s] most inexcusable disgraces”—one of all too many, one might remark.
