The cockpit of truth

The tragic death in Iraq of Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull under US ‘friendly fire’ in March 2003 has become a bleak parable of the flaws at the heart of the US-UK ‘special relationship’. Only now, and only thanks to a leak to the Sun of a classified recording of the conversation between two American pilots, has the precise nature of the accident become clear. As terrible as that error was, however, it is much more comprehensible than the disgraceful saga of bureaucracy and disdain which it triggered.

All servicemen accept that there is a risk that they will be hit by friendly fire, or that they will fire on their own side by mistake. The stricken reaction of the two A10 tankbuster pilots when they were told what had happened is almost as harrowing as the footage of the air strike itself. It is clear that the two senior reservists from the National Guard broke the rules of engagement and were casual in mistaking the orange panels on the convoy of Scimitar reconnaissance vehicles for rocket launchers.