OK, let's try to keep in mind here that the Arab News is to journalism in the Arab world what the Fox News Channel is to journalism in this country.
LONDON, 24 March 2003 — The shooting down of a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jet by a US Patriot missile illustrates how a great many lessons remain to be learned on avoiding so-called “friendly fire” incidents, defense analysts in London said yesterday....
“All you have to ask yourself is what’s exactly the Iraqi aircraft threat to allied forces? There isn’t one,” a defense analyst said.
Any suspect plane would have already been picked up on radar by an AWACS advance warning aircraft before the Patriot battery registered it, “so the first step should not have been to shoot it down,” he said....
“It looks like it is an operator error,” he said, laying the blame on a “trigger-happy American”.
Another analyst, Francis Tusa, from the specialist monthly Defense Analysis, said: “Bearing in mind the Iraqi air threat to allied forces is so minimal, someone is going to have to re-examine the air defense rules of engagement.”
Great; the journalistic equivalent of sticking your tongue out: "Nyah, nyah, nyah...." I wonder if Rupert Murdoch owns a controlling interest??
