WHAT SHUD HAPPEN TO THE PILOTS..........

by Mary 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  Mary

  What do you think should happen to the two American pilots who fired on and killed the 4 Canadians over in Afganistan last year in the friendly fire incident?

  This is a hard one. As a Canadian, I fully support the USA and obviously this disaster was not intentional and I'm sure the pilots must feel awful about it. On the other hand, the one fired on them less than one minute after being told to "Hold Fire". They've admitted to taking speed before the mission, but is that really an excuse? What bothered me the most was President Bush's reaction to it: almost nothing. And the mother of one of the two pilots accused almost seems to think 'well, they're only Canadians." which didn't impress me.

  So who's to blame here? And what should the punishment be?
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  RevMalk

  I'm not going to try and answer your question, because I just really don't know. It sucks, and I feel for the families, but this getting on Bush for his reaction was just ridiculous. You have to take the full situation into consideration. We're at war, it's less than 3 months since 9/11, and you're a fairly new President......all that and more weighs heavy on a man, no matter who he is. He called the Prime Minister immediately, and he made an apology both to Canadian and American Press. The problem was, he gave a speech a day or two later and didn't mention the situation. Well guess what? We have people dieing all over the world every day, if he spent all his time apologizing for all that he'd have no time to blow the middle east off the map :)
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  DevonMcBride

  They've admitted to taking speed before the mission, but is that really an excuse?

  That's a poor excuse. I'm bothered when criminals use substance abuse as an excuse to get away with murder.
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  IronGland

  Nothing goes exactly as it should in a combat situation. People are scared, jumpy and sometimes perhaps orders are not clear. I don't think it's a good idea to make soldiers fear prosecution on top of everything else they are dealing with. A mistake was made and now these pilots are gonna be the sacrificial lamb because "somebodys got to pay". If I were the parents of the Canadians that were killed, I dont think I would feel any better knowing these guys are gonna be rotting in prison for a mistake.
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  Shutterbug

  This will hinge on rather or not proper proceedures were followed. If not, the pilots are in big trouble. Having said that, we need to realize when bombs start going off, these incidents will happen. If any of you have any ideas as to how to prevent these incidents in the future, I'm sure the military would be happy to hear those ideas. Bug
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  Elsewhere

  I'm inclined to think that the pilots acted the way they did because they were under the influence of Speed. As far as I know, It was a "lawful order" for them to take the speed. Because of this they acted as one would expect when under the influence of Speed.

  The pilots themselves should not be held legally reasonable, however, the person(s) who decided that the pilots should take Speed should be held legally responsible.
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  Brummie

  IMO the families of the deceased should decide the punishment for the crime, but only after being allowed time to get the right perspective of what really happened and why.

  I would certainly be furious if some drugged up person shot one of mine, tis a disgrace.

  Brummie
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  Yerusalyim

  I personally am OUTRAGED that the Military is trying these pilots. This outrage, of course, contingent on the facts of the case.

  The "speed" shouldn't really figure into this at all. The biggest problem was the breifing these pilots received was incomplete, making NO REFERENCE to live-fire exercise or location of friendly forces. Therefore, the COMMANDER bears the responsibility.

  Whether or not the "Hold Fire" order was given, if the pilots thought they were being fired upon a second time (which according to the tape they did) then lethal force was indeed appropriate. Ask any combat pilot whose honest, when you see ground fire, you'd be foolish to think it wasn't directed at you.

  I hate the loss of life suffered by the Canadians, but the blame is NOT with the pilots, it's with those who briefed the pilots. Were those dead Americans there would be no issue. This has been politicized.

  A good friend of mine was killed in Afghanistan from a similar incident, and several wounded to the point they are now on a medical retirement.

  Friendly fire isn't! [Friendly that is]. But don't punish guys for doing the best they could with the info they had.
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  Elsewhere

  Yerusalyim, I was hoping you would chime in on this... you of all people here (that I know of) would have a unique perspective given your military background.

  I think you make some good points.
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  Navigator

  Yerusalem is right! This is a classic case of intelligence breakdown. In Nam I found almost 300 troops in a free fire area sitting around campfires. I could have easily killed all of them as we were equipped with 20 mm Vulcan Cannons which could fire accurately at 6000 rounds per minute. I had been briefed that there were no friendlies in that area. It seems that the CIA and the DIA(Defense Intelligence Agency) weren't talking to each other. Since their behavior was not typical of the enemy, we withheld fire. A few minutes later a panicky voice came over Guard Channel with a Hold Fire order. I came close to assaulting an young Lt. Intel Officer when I got back to base. The ones to be courtmartialed should be the Intel Officers. Command and Control seems to have been deficient as well. That having been said, I think the pilots exercised poor judgement in presuming the fire was directed at them. It is virtually impossible to distinguish between friendly and enemy fire unless you hear the shrapnel hitting the skin of your airplane. Speed may have been a factor. I refused to take it when I was flying because I didn't like the effect it had on me. When I was on active duty, Go Pills were optional, not mandatory.