When British soldier Lance Corporal Matty Hull of the Household Cavalry Regiment was killed in Iraq in March of 2003, it was no more than a few minutes before it became clear that his death had been caused by friendly fire–a “blue on blue incident.” Two A-10s from the Idaho National Guard had mistakenly strafed a convoy of British sodiers, killing Hull and wounding one of his comrades. The official investigation into Hull’s death had been held up ever since by demands that a tape of the incident be made available the British coroner’s court charged with heading the inquest. Yesterday, a British tabloid made a transcript of the tape available and posted a portion of it on the web, available here. As the New York Times reported yesterday, the pilots “fall apart in a duet of shock, panicked swearing and audible weeping, after learning the what they’ve done.” One says he’s “going to be sick,” the other let’s out a scream and a torrent of expletives. There’s no mistaking their anguish for indifference. Yet the Sun quotes an unnamed U.S. military source as saying “The pilots need to be brought to account.” The tabloid is certainly doing its part to drum up public support for some kind of legal action against the two men. Italy, too, is attempting to hold U.S. soldiers to account for mistakes made in Iraq. Reuters reported yesterday that an Italian judge has ordered Mario Lozano of the U.S. Army’s 69th Infantry Regiment to stand trial in the death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari, whose vehicle was shot-up by U.S. soldiers while transporting an Italian journalist–held hostage by insurgents only hours earlier–to the Baghdad airport. Lorenzo will be tried in absentia for the voluntary homicide of Calipari in addition to two counts of attempted murder. And last month, a Spanish court issued an international search and capture warrant for three U.S. servicemen whose tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in April 2003, killing Spanish TV cameraman José Couso. The three servicemen were cleared of any improper conduct by a Pentagon investigation which found their actions justified, despite the tragic consequence. I spoke with Jeremy Rabkin, frequent WEEKLY STANDARD contributor and professor of international law at Cornell University, about these cases and what they mean for relations between the United States and our “allies.” Rabkin says that in the case of Italy, that country “has a historic claim that they will protect Italians out in the world.” Because the United States takes a similar position, he says we shouldn’t be “too sanctimonious.” Still, he says that the Italian charges essentially amount to an accusation that the United States did not investigate in good faith. “It’s shocking that they are so distrustful,” and the charges basically imply that the Italians “believe we meant to kill, or that we believe you are so reckless,” that the actions of this soldier can be called murder. In the case of Spain, Rabkin says the issuing of a warrant is “a reminder that Spain is a left-wing government and not to be trusted.” In contrast to Italy, which at least “maintains the pretense of being a serious country,” the Spanish simply aren’t an ally and aren’t serious. Finally, Rabkin says it’s unlikely the British case will be pursued, but that the investigation is alarming nonetheless. In each of these incidents, the lesson, and “it is well for us to learn this,” is that these countries are “putting us on notice that they are completely unreliable partners.” How can we go to war with our allies if American soldiers can be held liable in a foreign courts for mistakes made in good faith? And in the realm of pure speculation: Many presumed that the Italian government had paid a ransom to free the captive journalist that Calipari was escorting to the airport. That the car was speeding towards a check point, with no indication that the driver would stop, might be explained by the Italian government’s reluctance to answer questions about who had been paid what and where. Rabkin said they “probably didn’t want to explain themselves,” which means that the Italians may well have “perpetrated this provocation.” The bottom line is that our supposed allies believe “there are no innocent mistakes because we are waging an illegal war.” They are “playing a game to embarrass us and show people at home that they are standing up to the United States.” With friends like these…
