Daily View: The death of Linda Norgrove
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The announcement by David Cameron that the death British aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been accidentally killed by US forces during a rescue mission in Afghanistan has got commentators asking what this means for Anglo-American relations.
The [subscription required] the SAS may have been more successful:
"US forces know the terrain, but what would have happened if the Special Air Service (SAS) had attempted the rescue? Might the outcome have been different with British forces in more than a consulting role?
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"The question must be faced, because the SAS has a formidable reputation of stealth and success in the rescue of hostages. The record of US and Nato rescue missions demonstrates extraordinary bravery and sacrifice, but the achievements are more chequered."
The that Nato's original misleading statement has caused the public's belief in the war in Afghanistan to "slip another notch":
"Why this compulsion to mislead? The accumulated weight of mendacity, the insistence that the enemy is evil incarnate and our boys invariably heroic, is merely sickening. The attempt by US forces to rescue Linda Norgrove may or may not have been as urgent as claimed; it is impossible to judge. We cannot doubt that it was difficult and dangerous, and if they had pulled it off we would have been as glad as anyone. But why the need to obscure the truth about how it ended? Why go to such lengths to spell out the alleged cause of Linda's death when the miserable truth was bound to emerge? Why prevail on our Foreign Office to release a statement - 'There is nothing at all to suggest that US fire was the cause of death' - which it would be required in short order to eat?"
The the "bungled" mission shows the need for British forces to be fully equipped, so US forces aren't needed:
"[T]he Americans' 'shoot first, ask questions later' approach means that they are not always well-suited for this kind of sensitive operation. British special forces, on the other hand, are more likely to 'take a bullet' than risk the well-being of a British captive. But I suspect the option of using British assault troops was not even open to Mr Cameron, even if the Americans had given permission for a British unit to take the lead role in the rescue mission."
Former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan Colonel :
"Many people have said the outcome would have been different had the SAS carried out this mission. We will never know. But those who accuse the American rescuers of being overly aggressive or gung-ho have perhaps never seen these amazingly professional, highly trained troops in action.
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"They are every bit as good as our own - and every bit as self-critical."
how seriously US forces are taking the incident:
"The fact that General Petraeus responded so powerfully and ordered such a major enquiry, is also significant. Petraeus is a known Anglophile and this suggests he must be worried that this could gravely affect Anglo-American relations, particularly at a time when the new UK government is talking about drastic defence cuts - and when he and fellow commanders are desperate not to lose the very active efforts of the Brits in Afghanistan."
the diplomacy he imagines was needed by David Cameron in his speech:
"The prime minister didn't want to blame anybody. He praised the Americans for their courage. They had, he said, 'treated her as if she were a US citizen', which perhaps sounded more ironic than he intended. The inquiry would be conducted jointly by the US and the UK, which we took as code for saying 'we'll make sure that there isn't an American cover-up'.
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"He could not say anything that might reflect on the Americans who, after all, had offered a rescue operation that put their own troops at risk. The hacks were, perhaps, more cynical. One asked how it was that a live grenade had been detonated near a hostage. Was this recklessness by US forces?"
David Cameron smoothed over any potential problems with the US gracefully:
"The Prime Minister praised the bravery of the Americans who had mounted the attempted rescue. As a politician, Mr Cameron has the gift of turning a setback into an opportunity to create or to cement a coalition. An occasion which might have divided us from the Americans was instead becoming a way of strengthening our alliance with them."
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