The British press has been making a stink for several days about a friendly fire incident in Iraq, dating from only seven days after the invasion, when American A-10s made an erroneous attack on a British convoy that killed one British soldier. Fox News has the Sun's report (including a link) on the just-leaked video; of course, the two media outlets are part of the same corporation.

What the tape makes clear is that the soldier, Corporal Matty Hull, was killed in a tragic mistake. The pilots (reservists who had never seen combat before) and air traffic controller screwed up massively, and were overcome by remorse as soon as they realized what they had done--one of them started crying.

I do not understand why the Pentagon and the British ministry of defense tried to cover this up. Obviously, it was a military secret during the actual fighting, but after Saddam's armed forces had been defeated, they should have made the incident public.

I do understand the US military's unwillingness to turn its soldiers over to a foreign court. What I don't understand is why the US military did not itself publicly court-martial and discipline those responsible.

And what I want to know is who leaked the tape to the Sun.