“The evidence was irrefutable: the plane was where it should have been. The ship was where it should not.”
New York Times: 1 July, 1992
Author: Mark Bolton. Subbing: DeepSeek. Images sources under pics.
Dear Carolynn
Before I remember the innocent 224 adults and 66 children who lost their lives due to gung-ho USS Vincennes during the Iraq/Iran war, I have to admit to being concerned about the overall apathy around the world with regards to the recent attacks by Israel on Iran, and the gagging of anyone who criticises Israel for its clear crimes against humanity and war crimes. The current so-called ‘ceasefire’, which is in reality Israel waving the white flag with its fingers crossed, is unlikely to hold despite my original optimism.
The so called ‘12 Day War‘ not only ran twice as long as the 1967 brother, this time it came at a huge cost to Israel. Its own unwillingness to come out and tell us Iran had not caused massive damages is in itself an admission that it had its pants pulled down to expose it has nothing to boast about after all. Iran deliberately avoided a weight of fatalities to deny escalation pretexts, which would have frustrated Israel to have so few deaths to report (there appears to be little evidence of mass graves or funerals).
Iran certainly copped some serious blows, but it is a very hardened society, and now united not by differences, but united as Iranians. For regime change advocates, an Iran-for-Iran is the last thing they need, but I don’t feel secure that the bullies have’t accepted they are Goliath taking on David.
Iran, suddenly united as one, successfully destroyed some of Israel’s infrastructure, depleted its defences, badly damaged its reputation as untouchable, caused havoc to its economy, and possibly the most important long-term factor, Israel turned a large population of the world against it, and in doing so moved that support to Iran, Gaza and now the West Bank, where currently settlers are on a rampage and even turning on the IDF.
“I will never apologise for the United States — I don’t care what the facts are.” George H. W. Bush
I want to put aside for the time being the current situation and focus on an event that took place 37 years ago today (Bandar Abbas time). As the Iraq/Iran war was winding down after six long years of fighting; the 3rd of July, 1988 became a date of infamy, a date that The USA prefers to avoid. Mid morning, the USS Vincennes, fired two missiles at, and successfully downed an Iran Air Airbus A300B2 which was flying inside a 20 mile safety zone over the Strait of Hormuz from the port city of Bandar Abbas to Dubai, carrying 274 passengers and 16 crew members.
What followed was an immediate attempt to cover up (maybe) an horrendous mistake made by the US Navy. As with all lies told poorly, they are eventually brought to light–but, at a time when the media did its job, the a fake story was eventually exposed. Of course, The USA managed to wiggle its way out of any real actions other than meagre compensation payments to the families of the innocent victims lost on Iranian 655.
If shooting innocent adults and children out of the sky isn’t morally bad enough, deceiving its own public and the world too, sinking even lower, it then awarded Captain William Rogers the Legion of Merit (high military decoration), a citation for “exceptionally meritorious conduct” during the Vincennes’ deployment (May–August 1988), but accidentally (sarcasm) left out any mention of Iranian 655. Furthermore, Rogers retired in 1991 with full honours.
The crew received Combat Action Ribbons and Navy Commendation Medals for “heroism” during the surface engagement with Iranian gunboats earlier on July 3. No medals cited-actions related to the shooting down of Iranian 655. Combat Action Ribbons are probably acceptable with regards to the gun boats.
Radar & Timeline Reconstruction (DeepSeek)
*(Times in Iran Standard Time, UTC+3:30)*
- 9:47:00: IR655 takes off from Bandar Abbas.
- 9:47:30: Vincennes’ Aegis radar detects takeoff.
- 9:50:00: IR655 reaches 12,000 ft, turns toward Dubai.
- 9:52:00: Vincennes misidentifies IR655 as “F-14 descending”.
- 9:53:00: Warnings sent to “unidentified aircraft” (ignored by IR655 — commercial pilots rarely monitor military hails).
- 9:54:23: SM-2 missiles fired.
- 9:54:44: First missile hits IR655 at 13,500 ft.
▶︎ Radar proof: Civilian air traffic control (Bandar Abbas) showed IR655 on-course until signal loss.
Because it is so complicated, I’m not going to go into great detail here about the mess the US interference in the region has caused over the last 70 years in particular, putting us all at risk, but I’ll provide as simple as I can summary of a period of time that we can reflect upon today and at least consider Iran’s side of the story.
I’m not looking to lobby public opinion towards Iran, that’s for each individual to decide. I’m looking to inspire people to look for them themselves. No denying that there is rightly a large and growing anger towards Israel and The USA, and that support now going to Iran, Gaza, West Bank and others in the region, still far too many are asleep at the wheel and we’re driving full speed to a cliff.
Iran has strategic justification to seek nuclear deterrence after decades of attacks. I’m going to offer a small sample of key events in point form, and you decide if Iran and Iranian’s deserve the treatment it has copped post WW2, and has likely no choice now but to seriously consider nuclear weapons to defend its massive borders. If Iran does choose this path, it doesn’t make it the dangerous state, it makes The USA, Israel and their supporters the threatening ones.
1953:
The U.S./UK overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh, to control oil and huge money by installing the Mohammad Reza Shah, a dictator whose brutal rule sparked the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
During the recent so-called 12 Day War, there was a desire to regime change with the Mohammad Reza Shahs son who would have become yet another stooge for US, Israeli interests.
4th November, 1979:
Iran’s revolutionaries seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages for 444 days. This most certainly was the last straw for Jimmy Carter, and the hostages debacle helped elect Ronald Reagan to become the 40th President. There is a fair and reasonable school of thought that leading up to the election, the Republican Party was deliberately blocking the Carter administration’s attempt to negotiate the safe return of the hostages until after the election, which, by surprise, only minutes after Reagan was sworn in on the 20th January, 1981, the hostages were released. The hostages were offered very little support by the US since their release.
1980s:
- Iran-Iraq War: US backed Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, killing 500,000+.
- Iran-Contra Scandal: Despite an embargo, US President Reagan was ‘unaware‘ that his administration secretly sold arms to Iran to fund Nicaraguan rebels to fight the Sandinistas, which were a socialist organisation that took power in 1979. At the same time, The US was backing Iraq and funnelling weapons through nearby Arab nations to Saddam Hussein. In effect, the US was backing both sides of the war as well as acting as security heavies in the region. The US also turned a blind eye and allowed Iraq to manufacture chemical weapons, which were not only used used on Iranian’s and Kurds, they were later used by the US to sell Iraq’s WMD propaganda. In other words, the same officials who by proxy armed Saddam in the 1980s (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz) later used those very weapons — which they helped create — to sell a war that killed 300,000+ Iraqis and 4,500 U.S. troops. However, those chemical weapons were deemed useless because they were old and unreliable. How was all of this funded? According to a three-part report by a regional journalist, Gary Webb, who embarrassed big media, the unaware donors were poor Californian black American’s by way of their addictions to crack-cocaine. Sadly, his own industry turned on Webb who either unalived himself or was unalived.
YouTube videos to help explain will be attached below
July 3, 1988:
The USS Vincennes, invading Iranian waters, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, killing 290 civilians. The U.S. covered it up, paid blood money ($68M), but never apologised, hence George H. W. Bush‘s comments about never apologising no matter the facts.
Why Today Is So Dangerous:
- Iran’s View: “America and Israel stole our democracy, starved us with sanctions, and murdered our people.”
- Israel’s Spin: An Iran with nuclear weapons — backed by proxies like Hezbollah — threatens its existence.
- Tinderbox: Assassinations (Iran’s generals, Israel’s attacks on Iran’s consulate), cyberwar, and drones could spark a regional inferno. If this were to have taken place in Israel, US, Britain, Australia and so on, these actions would be labelled ‘terrorism’.
The Unspoken Truth:
With the help of the UK and Israel, the common denominator to all of these wars is The USA, and its citizens are paying massive amounts to fund the wars in what is nothing more than a glaringly obvious wealth transfer to the wealthiest people in the world. And countries like mine don’t dare speak up. So it is up to us to take our heads out of the sand, avoid the distractions, focus, and prevent a war that takes us back to sticks and stones.
If you are unaware of any of this, below are four videos you might find fascinating and will maybe send you on a path to seek other opinions and come to your own conclusions.
Thoughts are with the victims and surving families of Iranian 655
Speak. Share. Shout. History won’t forgive our quiet.
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