Saudi Arabia has issued a statement this week on their April 27
airstrike against a Yemeni blood bank, saying that the attack was an
accident, and that it was the result of a “defect in the bomb.”
This was an interesting statement, since the Saudis don’t generally
admit to mistakes in the Yemen War, and rarely brings up such incidents,
especially months after they’ve fallen out of the headlines.
Yemen’s Health Ministry complained that the attack was a war crime,
preventing blood transfusions in several provinces. Yet this was hardly
the only Saudi attack on hospitals or other vital medical facilities in
the war. In general, such attacks just happen, are criticized, and then
never heard about again.
Saudi Arabia seems to be increasingly aware of how badly the Yemen War
is playing in the West, and while officials seem only too willing to
keep selling them weapons, keeping those arms sales flowing also
requires at least a little public relations on some of their worst
excesses. While a “flaw” in a bomb is a fairly limp excuse, it’s more
than has been offered generally.
It’s more like a defect in the bomber (MBS) if you ask me. Why are we talking “benevolent” regime change in so many nations around the world and not including Saudi Arabia on the list? Oh, right, oil and money. That justifies every outrageous act by this medieval theocracy.
The dude is seriously psycho!
Exactly how is it the fault of a “defective bomb”? Did the bomb go rogue and decide to go elsewhere after it was dropped from a plane? Was it one of our “smart bombs” that dropped out of bomb school? Just how in the fu*k can a bomb detonate after being dropped from a plane and be called defective?
Well, there could be a “defective bomb.” For example, on a “dumb bomb” a guide fin could be bent, or on a “smart bomb” a wiring error could cause the fin to move in the opposite direction from what a signal was supposed to be telling it to.
But the problem with the claim is, how do you establish that the bomb was defective after you dropped it? It’s in a million distorted pieces, and even if those pieces could be collected and analyzed, they’re in a place where you can’t go to collect them.
I read the link and they didn’t go into details. I guess they weren’t interested in providing an explanation. So I figured it was worthy of a smart ass response.
Kinda always thought defective bombs were the ones that didn’t explode. As for defective guidance, I would assume there is a % of failure. Knowingly using those weapons would make the “oops” excuse null. The same “ethics” apply to weapon choice. If a targeting officer decides to use a weapon that figures 10 non combatant deaths, rather than one that figures 100…he didn’t save 90, he murdered 10.
US-made bombs are defective? Holy cow! Our bombs are act so of kindness bringing eace, democracy and happiness over brown and black skinned people all over world!! What is this nonsense that Saudi Barbaria is saying?
And these are the gutless jackals who need our troops to protect them from terrorism? If Trump really put America first, he would tell his Saudi pimps to go bomb themselves by “mistake.”