Weekend US airstrikes against a Syrian army base in Deir Ezzor, a protracted error which killed 83 Syrian soldiers and opened up the base for ISIS to overrun it, carried on longer than it should have, because when Russia made the call to warn the Americans, the guy who was supposed to answer it wasn’t there.
The Russian military called and asked to speak to this “point of contact” official at the coordinating center which is running the US-led bombing campaigns in Syria, and were told he wasn’t available. The Russians called back again and finally got somebody who understood that the US was bombing the wrong target.
The Pentagon dismissed concern about the lapse, saying the contact “wasn’t expecting a call” and therefore didn’t feel obliged to sit next to the phone. Yet as intense US airstrikes were ongoing, in the middle of a US-Russia negotiated ceasefire, it seems like it wasn’t a total shock that a call ended up made.
Russian officials have mostly complained about the lack of coordination before the attack, with the US only describing what they intended to bomb in vague terms as a bunch of ISIS fighters “out in the open.” Russian officials have noted that if the US would tell them exactly what they intended to bomb, they’d be able to tell them if it was actually a Syrian military base, and not ISIS at all.
American lies after lies.
It’s not our fault had a weak signal damn AT&T…Well I’m sure it all worked out and nobody was hurt.Probably the Syrian Regime staging a bombing seen can’t trust anything those guys say
Kerry from the State Dept. negotiated the cease fire and the intended cooperation between the US and Russia. Ashton Carter at Defense, along with his generals, hated it. Obama went with Kerry but the military brass won the argument. I would call it disobeying a lawful order, in this case from the Commander in Chief. Seymour Hersh might get the story right, but how far will the relationship between the US and Russia have deteriorated by then?
So the Pentagon says sorry, but they can’t be sure who they’re bombing. Five TRILLION dollars in equipment and they don’t know who they’re bombing? They don’t have Syria mapped out to the square inch, with the names and license numbers of every vehicle in the country? They can read a newspaper over the shoulder of a guy sitting on a park bench, from SPACE, and they claim they didn’t know a Syrian base that had been shooting outwards for five years is not ISIS?
Reminds me of Oscar Wilde’s remark, standing in the rain on the way to prison. “If this is the way the Queen treats her prisoners, she doesn’t deserve to have any.”
The US army not having replacement for officers on a lunch break… And an american officer who doesn’t have a cell phone. They really are taking us for idiots.
the usa has not declared war on syria. therefor the families have every right to sue the us in american courts for wrongful death. why they never do this is beyond me. if there was a declaration of war, it would be different. But their is not declaration of war. The USA has no legal right to fly over Syria and murder soldiers. its the same as a drive by shooting in Detroit
The ‘American Contact'(?) was most likely an i$raeli shill masturbating to gay porn with a bag of bath salts strapped to his head. Not my America.
Do these guys ever feel an ounce of shame for being the terrorists’ air force?