There but for the grace of....God ? Allah ? Luck ?
So we nearly lost a British institution today. The great John Simpson stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale. How the hell he kept it together to report in the terrible immediate aftermath of yet another 'friendly-fire', 'blue on blue' or what-the-hell-else-they-want-to-call-it incident, is beyond me. I would be babbling uncontrollably, probably crying my eyes out and shaking like a bloody leaf had I just come as close to my end as he had.
"I saw men burning to death in front of my eyes".
"This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles on fire. There are bodies burning around me, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground".
Jesus ! My natural instinct would not be to file a report but scream and, possibly, faint.
John's translator died, the brother of the Kurd's leader also. Along with an unspecified number of American Special Forces personnel. He ended a later interview by pointing out that things like this happen in a war zone. I get the impression he would have liked to broadcast some images that would ram home just exactly what happens when bombs are dropped.
Full story here
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