What is gained?
Reader comment on item: The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Spy Ship

Submitted by F. Burke (United States), Jan 4, 2003 at 12:01

I have only recently heard of this "incident", but have read a great deal of the internet argument and watched the Tito Howard film, The Loss of Liberty. My question is: What is gained by a current investigation of a matter that occurred in 1968? Are we hoping to find out that the Israeli's are dastardly villians? Or, are we going to be satisfied if we find out that the whole affair was a terrible mistake?

Perhaps, if I were one of those men who were attacked, I would feel some vindication if an investigation were conducted by the Congress. However, it seems that they know without such an investigation that this was an intentional act and no matter what an investigation reveals, they would still feel that way. And for those who think it was a terrible tragedy of war and friendly fire, does their opinion really matter to the crew who knows it was not?

I feel sympathy for the survivors and the families of the men who did not survive and hope that their pain is eased by the one fact that is probably not in dispute, that is, people on both sides of this issue know that the sailors on board the Liberty are heroes.

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