Ambiance

Iran admits shooting down airliner: such a bizarre twist.

January 11, 2020 at 9:32 pm (By Amba)

This is such a crazy story in so many dimensions. I’ve had a jumble of thoughts about it. A few of them:

• The uproar about it, compared to the killing of, say, Afghan civilians at a wedding by a drone strike. This upsets the heard-from world so much more—I would guess because the vulnerability of being in an airplane is such a universal experience . . . for the relatively educated, cosmopolitan, and affluent who make viral uproars.
• Even if it had been caught red-handed, the United States would never, ever have come clean about such a terrible error and expressed remorse. (UPDATE: In the comments below, KngFish says the U.S. did and did.)
• That Iranian officials, caught red-handed, did so—and that much of their public did a 180 from their brief unity with their rulers over Soleimani and resumed furious protest—suggests to me (among other things) something about Iran being, deep down, a civilization.
• But this is also being used to vindicate American meddling—our cherished self-image as the colossus bestriding the world, the pumped, pro-freedom, semiautomatic-toting Rambo—and to reinforce Trump’s reelection.