Another interesting series of incidents involve our naval forces in the Persian Gulf, and the 1987 dramatic attack on the guided-missle frigate Stark with air-to-sea missles by an Iraqi fighter: Click here for article
Apparently the Iraqi jet thought it was attacking an Iranian tanker and apologies were accepted from the Iraqi government for the mistake.

The lesson we apparently learned that day was to shoot first and ask questions later. Then we shot down an Iranian civilian passenger jet.

I may not be adding any clarity to the discussion, but I find the details interesting.

Charley Noble