Suppose you are Will Rogers III, commanding the U.S. cruiser Vincennes. Coming right toward you is an Iranian airplane. It won`t answer your warning messages and doesn`t change course. The plane`s only a blip on a radar screen. How do you determine whether it`s loaded with people or 20 tons of high explosives?
Then considering the ayatollah`s demonstrated disregard for human life, how do you know whether or not the Iranian pilot is on a kamikaze mission?
The American commander had just about one minute to decide, ”Do we become a sitting duck for a kamikaze pilot, or do we shoot down the enemy plane?”
For acting to save an American ship and hundreds of American lives, Rogers should be commended, not censured.
Accident was the wrong word to use; incident maybe, but not accident. That sounds a bit sloppy, as though we didn`t really know what we were doing. Rogers did what any good commander, operating in a war zone, should.
