In 2003, an American pilot shot at a convoy of British troops in Basra, killing one British soldier and injuring four others. At the British inquest, the American government refused to allow the video of the incident to be admitted in court or for the pilots to be interviewed as to what happened. The video was subsequently leaked to a British newspaper to the fury of the Pentagon. It is shocking viewing.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,11021-10043,00.html
Yes, friendly fire incidents will happen. But when no responsibility is taken for the consequences, and no lessons learnt, you guarantee further such episodes. It would appear that British lives continue to be cheap to the Americans. Further, the way this was subsequently dealt with by the American Government is a shameful way to treat an ally.
For the MOD, blatantly lying to the wife of Matty Hull that no such tape existed is unforgivable. It seems the only hero to come out of this debacle with his dignity intact is the soldier on the ground who rushed in to drag a comrade to safety and who desperately tried to radio this appalling incompetence to an end. The ice-cool and professional voice of the British pilot belatedly calling for the pilots to stop strafing his ground troops with uranium-depleted bullets sums it all up.
It is disgraceful for the American Government to refuse permission for this video to be shown in a coroner's court when any member of the public around the globe can go to a website and watch the whole sorry spectacle online. That's crazy & disrespectful to this nation. But it is nothing compared to the spectacle of governments treating the families of those who died in a tragic accident so badly.
A terrible day for international relations. Is that what you call a special relationship?
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