Four houses destroyed, four casulties, eight injured.
I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m having a debate with myself and I’m not winning. This often happens.
Part of me said it was to be expected. We’re sending missles over there daily and there are going to be a few innocent casulties in this all but war that we’re fighting. But does that make it right when it happens? No, of course not, but what other choice do we have? Ignore the terrorists? Oh sure, that’ll solve everything. So we bomb them and kill innocents in the process. Not only does this completely defeat the purpose of what we’re doing, but it steels the enemy’s resolve that we are evil and need to be destroyed.
Maybe there isn’t an answer. That’s why I’m so confused.
The terrorists who attacked the Pentagon*, the World Trade Center, and whatever target the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was supposed to hit, did commandeer CIVILIAN aircraft and hit CIVILIAN targets.
*Yes, I realize the Pentagon is the big-assed office builiding for the Department of Defense, but it’s pretty well-known that it’s populated by civilians for the most part.
The Navy pilot who made the pilot error that caused the recent civilian deaths in Afghanistan is likely to get some sort of punishment (I hope).
The fact remains, the intended target was the legitimate military target he missed hitting.
Civilians die in war. Always. That is probably Reason No. 1 why war is so awful and should be avoided if at all possible. But IMO it cannot be avoided in this case. We cannot simply take an attack on our home soil that resulted in the deaths of some 6000 people and do nothing about it. We have tried through diplomatic means to solve the crisis, but to no avail. What other viable options are there that do not amount to a total abdication of our responsibility to seek justice and insure this doesn’t happen again?
I would love, love, love to hear another option that doesn’t amount to just letting this attack go unanswered. But I haven’t heard of any.
Screw punishing the Navy pilot. That is the most self-centered piece of garbage thinking I have seen all day. While you sit here all safe and comfortable you are thinking about punishing some guy on the other side of the world fighting to keep you safe?
We are living in an America where we are prepared to shoot down our own civilian airliners over American soil.
We had damned well be prepared to see some collateral civilian causulties in Afganhistan.
I know. It could have been worse.
The phrase “you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs” runs through my head before I shake my head and think how trite and cliche it is. But it’s true. I’m not suggesting we stop bombing because of it. I’m not even saying that we’re on par with the terrorists because of it. What I’m saying is that they were just as innocent and whether it’s our fault or Osama’s fault or the Taliban’s fault doesn’t change the fact that they’re dead right now.
It doesn’t change anything, in fact. We’ll send more missles tomorrow.
Sometimes I think the unluckiest ones are those under the tyrant. They shield him, even if they don’t want to, and those who seek him can’t get to him without going through them.
Stuff like this makes me think of Dresden. How could we have done it? But what choice did we have?
It’s GOOD to feel this way-we won’t let them be forgotten. That’s the difference between us and them-they don’t care about OUR civilian casualties-but we will care about their’s.
I hate it too. I wish with every thing in the world that things were different. It’s times like this where I just want to slide into bed and pull the covers over my head, shut my eyes and make it go away. But it won’t.
The world sucks. I only hope that it will be over soon-even though it won’t.
Let’s see: he missed the intended target and hit innocents. Sounds like he messed up doing his job.
You are so off-base with this comment it’s not even funny.
Just so you know, I already served in a combat zone keeping your ass safe. And if I screwed up doing my job there, I certainly would’ve been punished.
That frightens me almost as much as your carte blanche for the pilots to kill innocent people.
No, we had damned well be prepared to see some effective execution of the mission the Navy pilots are on. Luckily, the vast majority of those missions were executed effectively. The pilot error is exactly that: error. It should not be rewarded with, “Oh, sorry, old chap. You flubbed the mission. Let’s go on out and hope you get it right this time so OTHER PILOTS DON’T HAVE TO GO OUT IN HARM’S WAY TO DO WHAT YOU FUCKED UP ON EARLIER!”
Got it now or do I need to writ it all in one-syllable words for you?
I am moved by what I read here. Humor is my favored mode of communication, but it has no place here. It is a lesser casualty, but a casualty, nonetheless. (When I speak my true feelings directly, I sound pious and sententious even to my own ear, I can only imagine what the reader is suffering)
For more than thirty years, I have seen pictures of children injured and killed by men who act in my behalf. Those of you who are familiar with me know how fervently I urged that we exhaust every possible alternative, etc. It was not to be.
We have committed ourselves. If I could believe that we could turn back, stop now and seek out those alternatives, you know I would. It is too late. It is a bitter fact, but a military half-measure is worse than none at all. To infuriate your enemy without disabling him is madness.
So its will almost certainly get worse. Much worse.
It is our humanity, our compassion that does us honor. Remember how you feel today. Almost certainly, there will be another day, the drums will beat again. If this makes us reluctant, if this reminds us that the word “war” is the foulest obscenity, the most vile blasphemy, in any language, then perhaps we can take away something worthwhile. It won’t be enough, but its as much as we can hope for, save for the hollow and temporary advantage represented by “victory”.
I am moved by what I read here. Humor is my favored mode of communication, but it has no place here. It is a lesser casualty, but a casualty, nonetheless. (When I speak my true feelings directly, I sound pious and sententious even to my own ear, I can only imagine what the reader is suffering)
For more than thirty years, I have seen pictures of children injured and killed by men who act in my behalf. Those of you who are familiar with me know how fervently I urged that we exhaust every possible alternative, etc. It was not to be.
We have committed ourselves. If I could believe that we could turn back, stop now and seek out those alternatives, you know I would. It is too late. It is a bitter fact, but a military half-measure is worse than none at all. To infuriate your enemy without disabling him is madness.
So its will almost certainly get worse. Much worse.
It is our humanity, our compassion that does us honor. Remember how you feel today. Almost certainly, there will be another day, the drums will beat again. If this makes us reluctant, if this reminds us that the word “war” is the foulest obscenity, the most vile blasphemy, in any language, then perhaps we can take away something worthwhile. It won’t be enough, but its as much as we can hope for, save for the hollow and temporary advantage represented by “victory”.
I am moved by what I read here. Humor is my favored mode of communication, but it has no place here. (When I speak my true feelings directly, I sound pious and sententious even to my own ear, I can only imagine what the reader is suffering)
For more than thirty years, I have seen pictures of children injured and killed by men who act in my behalf. Those of you who are familiar with me know how fervently I urged that we exhaust every possible alternative, etc. It was not to be.
We have committed ourselves. If I could believe that we could turn back, stop now and seek out those alternatives, you know I would. It is too late. It is a bitter fact, but a military half-measure is worse than none at all. To infuriate your enemy without disabling him is madness.
So its will almost certainly get worse. Much worse.
It is our humanity, our compassion that does us honor. Remember how you feel today. Almost certainly, there will be another day, the drums will beat again. If this makes us reluctant, if this reminds us that the word “war” is the foulest obscenity, the most vile blasphemy, in any language, then perhaps we can take away something worthwhile. It won’t be enough, but its as much as we can hope for, save for the hollow and temporary advantage represented by “victory”.
I am moved by what I read here. Humor is my favored mode of communication, but it has no place here. (When I speak my true feelings directly, I sound pious and sententious even to my own ear, I can only imagine what the reader is suffering)
For more than thirty years, I have seen pictures of children injured and killed by men who act in my behalf. Those of you who are familiar with me know how fervently I urged that we exhaust every possible alternative, etc. It was not to be.
We have committed ourselves. If I could believe that we could turn back, stop now and seek out those alternatives, you know I would. It is too late. It is a bitter fact, but a military half-measure is worse than none at all. To infuriate your enemy without disabling him is madness.
So it will almost certainly get worse. Much worse.
It is our humanity, our compassion that does us honor. Remember how you feel today. Almost certainly, there will be another day, the drums will beat again. If this makes us reluctant, if this reminds us that the word “war” is the foulest obscenity, the most vile blasphemy, in any language, then perhaps we can take away something worthwhile. It won’t be enough, but its as much as we can hope for, save for the hollow and temporary advantage represented by “victory”.
From a news article on AOL regarding the mistargeted bomb:
“One defense official, who asked not to be identified, indicated that the satellite-guided bomb apparently missed its target due to human error because incorrect coordinates for the position of the helicopter were entered into a targeting system.”
I don’t know for sure how the targeting coordinates are entered into a bomb’s guidance system, but I believe they can come from several means: transmitted and downloaded from an AWACS or a JSTAR, entered by someone on the ground prior to takeoff, transmitted from the Command and Control Center aboard the carrier, and possibly entered by the pilot himself.
I don’t think a pilot could be concerned with entering a long string of numbers while in flight over a combat zone.
It may not be the pilot’s fault, but I’m reasonably sure that he feels pretty bad about it anyway.
It is a damn shame, regardless of who’s at fault. But, such are the fortunes of war. I’m sure the military is doing what they can to minimize civilian deaths, but they’re still going to happen.
Allah curse the Taliban and Al Qaeda for making these actions necessary.
Afghani civillians, yes. Especially in a war that may turn out to be about PR than eliminating miliary threats.
But also, as Monty pointed out, that bomb was meant for someplace else. Presumably, further American lives will be risked to attempt to take it out again, and the position is compromised, as the Taliban/al Qaeda now now that we know where it is.
Even if it had landed in a deserted minefield and had saved some sweepers the trouble of clearing the area later, it still would have been a bad thing. This is a very unfortuante incident, no matter how you look at it.
The distinction is quite simple. It’s the difference between accidentally driving over somebody while fiddling with your radio and intentionally driving your car into a group of children waiting for the schoolbus. Doesn’t make much difference from the victim’s point of view, but the rest of us do–and should–look at the two drivers rather differently.