Comments on: Did the U.S. target Giuliana Sgrena?

by: Robert S.

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 02:09:25 +0000

I think you guys both hit on thekey problem: it could just have been a simple tragedy, rooted in incompetence rather than any sort of conspiracy; but these stories quickly get politicized to the point that it difficult to pull apart the strands of reality, propaganda, speculation, political spin, and plain fiction to tell what really happened.

by: michaelm

Sun, 13 Mar 2005 22:04:33 +0000

Thanks you two for the comments. I need to read Rashomon to fully understand the likenesses of storyline. It’s odd how the polarizing nature of politics and the passion behind perspectives create layers upon layers of confusion around a story. Essentially, it seems that the public’s desire to know the truth around a tradgedy is inversely proportional to the probability that the truth will ever be fully revealed…

by: Saheli

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 19:41:12 +0000

I agree that this is a terribly murky story. Robert’s right, the Rashomon aspects are becoming quite astonishing.
I have to say, like I said when we bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, that I think when we’re talking about intent and fault in these incidents, we often forget the huge factors of error and incompetence. It’s possible that neither party did anything willfully, maliciously wrong, and even that the Italian car didn’t screw up in anyway–but that the Americans simply, unwillfully, screwed up. And I don’t that American willingness to believe that is just because we’re shelted by an uncritical media. I think a lot of people (myself especially) are willing to believe that, because frankly, I don’t have nearly as high an estimate of our intelligence or military skills as either right wing loyalists or left wing conspiracy theorists. With the Belgrade bombing, I was like, yep. I could totally see us being that incompetent. And if you watch Gunner Palace, I think you’ll see that just operationally war is terribly disorganized and lousy.
I really fear we may never get to the bottom of this. It’s far too politicized now.

by: Robert Stribley

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 06:17:56 +0000

Seems this story is turning into a rather extreme version of Rashomon in the desert–the stories couldn’t be more at odds with one another. I heard that the military had called ahead to say the Italians would be coming through. Was there a communication break-down? A tragic screw up? Trigger happy kids? Or if Sgrena was targeted, what the hell was the motivation? As you suggest, we may never know.