the USS stark

Submitted by H (United Kingdom), Jul 25, 2005 at 18:17

In May 1987 during the iran/iraq war to US warships the stark and her sister ship the coontz had the task of radioing the coordinates or iranian ships to the Iraqi air force (iraq was our friend then)

On the 17th of May 1987 two exocet missiles from an IRAQI mirage homed in accidentally on the radio beam of the stark killing 37 american crewmen

Saddam hussein wrote to President Reagan a letter of apology and ordered his airforce to cooperate fully with the secret american inquiry. It is rumoured that the Iraqi pilot was executed

The reagan administration did not ask Saddam for compensation as it was fully understood in Washington that this was a horrible mistake.

Counting perhaps on the general lack of interest in the war world wide and that the two countries had similar names along with the american media's tendacy not to question the official washington version on the big issues of the day, Reagan issed a strong warning to IRAN !!! that if there were any further attacks that "the united states would hit back in the most resolute fashion"

I do feel sorry for the guy who lost his friend on that ship but to claim it was not an accident is absurd

America was supplying coordinates to the iraqi airforce from the starq . Saddam apoligised staright away and washington used the moment to blame iran for the attack

For anyone who studies the subject of propaganda (outside the US), this story is well known

As has happened many times in war , the Iraqi mirage pilot confused the two radio signals (the one the starq was telling it to attack) and the one that identified the starq itself .

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