Quote:
Originally Posted by MaDalton
i'm afraid you have to read again
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Okay, let's read it again. I'll even shorten it.
"The course of the Iranian civilian airliner was such that it was headed directly for the U.S.S. Vincennes, which was at the time engaged with five Iranian Boghammar boats that had attacked our forces."
The boat was engaged in combat against five boats and a plane was heading right for the ship.
Did I miss something?
Reading about it on Wikipedia seems to confirm this... A helicopter from the ship had taken small arms fire, and the U.S.S. Vincennes was pursuing the five ships involved. In fact, the U.S.S. Vincennes violated Omani waters to do so, and then entered into Iranian waters.
The U.S.S. Vincennes attempted to contact the plane ten times on two different frequencies and got no response.
Sorry, a US warship was engaged in naval combat, and a plane who failed to respond to attempts to contact it.... Sorry, at that point you open fire. You are already under fire and a plane is coming in so you shoot it.