The Ship Model Forum

A lot of this ground has been covered in Proceedings over the last 3-4 years. I think the mechanics of the events have been be established pretty well.

What remains open for me is why Israel attacked. I believe they knew they ordered an attack on an American ship at some point in the chain of command. The question is, why? Was The USA sending intelligence to the Arabs? What was their motive?

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If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

-- "A Nation at Risk" (1983)

The premier expert on the incident maintains a web site:
http://www.libertyincident.com/index.html

I read Cristol's book - which interestingly is not only well researched, but also really well written - and discussed it with a couple of colleagues rather recently.

Some of them consider it to be the last word on it, but I actually doubt it - not because there is more to know, but because people are far too susceptible to conspiracy theories of one or the other nature.

Usually I make the experience that people tend not to accept "people sometimes simply make mistakes" as an explanation; always there have to be sinister ongoings behind it.

Jorit, celebrating national holiday

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It's always easy to Monday morning quaterback situations like these. The
Blackwater Agency is going through a similar scrutiny as we speak.
In the "fog of war" many things can go wrong. It does seem that the IDF did at sometime during the attack realize what they were shooting up. Why they continued is anyone's guess.. Maybe they thought they could sink it and forget it????Blame it on a mine... Who knows.
The only answer to these types of terrible blunders is to stop fighting wars .. something that is not about to happen anytime soon.
It was definitely not in Israel's interest to do this intentionally. And yes I believe that the US in the interest of stabilizing relations with Israel may have tryed to "soft shoe" this incident.. The proof is in how many Americans are aware of this incident...I'll wager it's not taught in American HS history or civics classes. Let Iran or the PRK pull off something like this and I am sure the US response would not be so .....mild.
Anyway the USS Liberty would be a interesting modelling subject.

Sorry this was my post I forgot to log in.... See mistakes do happen

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"When you shoot at a Destroyer and miss. It's like hit'in a wildcat in the A-- with a banjo" !
Lt. Joe Willingham Skipper USS Tautog SS-199

Life is Good/ DBF
Walt

As I recall, during or just after the first attack Liberty hoisted a giant battle flag. After that point, how could you mistake the ship. Besides, she has the obvious C-3 layout and markings of the USN.

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If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

-- "A Nation at Risk" (1983)

There has been considerable effort expended to try and hush this up.

As for being a mistake, I guess the IDF should get glasses for their pilots.

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║ Seasick║
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I don't think the pilots made a mistake. I want to know (1) what the orders were from higher up in the IDF, and (2) what was the nature of the intelligence gathered and did The Johnson Administration at some level trade the intelligence, or raise with Israel the possibility of trading the intelligence to the Arabs as part of an effort to "de-escalate" the war.

Remember, this is the height of McNamara's influence in the Pentagon, a man with truly no moral compass.

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If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

-- "A Nation at Risk" (1983)