Friday, May 12, 2006
The accident-prone U.S. military
The latest incident:
Four Marines drowned when their tank rolled off a bridge and plunged into a canal, the military said Friday, adding that while the accident occurred in a Sunni insurgent stronghold, it was not the result of an enemy action.One of the only reasons I post this here, in the midst of soldiers dying every day, is how indicative it is of the attitude towards truth of the U.S. military. They apparently "know" these deaths were "not the result of an enemy action," even though later in the article we learn:
The accident was under investigation, and the military said no other information was immediately available, including what kind of operation the Marines were taking part in and whether fighting with insurgents was under way in the area at that time.So basically they know nothing whatsoever, other than that a tank went off a bridge and four Marines are dead, yet their first inclination is not to simply state the truth ("we're not sure what happened, we're looking into it") but to deny that the Iraqi resistance had anything to do with it. Which, frankly, borders on the preposterous.
