Behind enemy lines

Frans Camilleri (August 5) dredged up the relatively old BBC story about how the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch was staged for the cameras.

Unfortunately, if he had done a bit of research into the matter instead of relying on the notoriously anti-American BBC, he would have found their story was discredited last May. The BBC seem to have relied on an Iraqi doctor, Anmar Uday, who can hardly be considered unbiased and certainly not an expert on weapons or military tactics.

Dr Uday says: "We were surprised. There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital. It was like a Hollywood film. (The US forces) cried 'Go, go, go', with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sounds of explosions. They made a show for the American attack on the hospital - like action movies starring Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan".

If the BBC or, indeed Mr Camilleri had attempted to verify this statement they would have found holes big enough to drive a tank through. Anyone familiar with how military weapons fire blanks knows that for a weapon to do so it must have a large orange metal device fitted on the barrel.

This "blank adaptor" restricts the amount of hot gas leaving the barrel when the weapon is fired. This provides enough hot gas in the barrel to operate the reloading system. The blank adaptor, in addition to being very obvious, takes several minutes to put on or take off. Now one might say that the troops had movie prop weapons. These also fire blanks but have the "blank adaptor" built into the barrel via a metal plug with a narrow exit hole to keep the hot gas in (and prevent anyone from using real bullets in the gun, unless the metal plug is removed). That US troops would go into hostile territory, behind enemy lines with weapons incapable of immediate live fire is beyond belief.

The "sounds of explosions" mentioned by Dr Uday would be flash-bang grenades used to blind and stun anyone in a room for those seconds necessary for the soldiers to enter and identify friend from foe.

As for the rest of the story, some of the Iraqi hospital staff assert that the Iraqi irregulars had fled before the American commandos showed up. Earlier, other hospital staff had said quite the opposite. Whatever the truth, US forces are not going to leave such things to chance or take the word of any Iraqi, whether it is an attorney or Dr Uday.

Standard procedure would be to go in guns at the ready and clear the hospital room by room from the roof down. Any person encountered who does not put up resistance is bound and blindfolded (usually with a bag over the head), while those who put up resistance... well you can guess what happens to them! Follow on forces would then interrogate the prisoners to separate the civilians from the military personnel, though in this case it was a quick in and out raid and, so far as I know, no prisoners were taken.

Finally, I would like to say that I watched President George Bush's landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln live on Fox News and though I did not swoon, I did find it awesome and exciting. In fact, the best part of it was to hear the bosun piping him aboard.

When a bosun pipes a visitor aboard ship, the announcement generally is of his area of command, that is, "Sixth Fleet, arriving". The bosun piping Mr Bush aboard announced: "United States, arriving". That was fantastic, something that only happens once in a lifetime and I am sure the sailors and airmen aboard that aircraft carrier felt the same way too, especially after the 45 minutes he spent taking photographs with them and shaking their hands.