US apologizes: 24 are OTW home

[Raubvogel]

I certainly hope there is legislation in the works to revoke whatever trade benefits China currently enjoys.

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Raubvogel
LuftJägerKorps

[Zippatuh]

My threshold was Sunday.

Say whatever is necessary to get our people back.  Then reverse trade relations, screw ‘em!  You don’t have to fire bullets to make someone feel the wound.

Zippatuh

[Karnak]

I have been boycotting Chinese goods for years and I will continue to do so with even greater vigilance.

We should revoke China's Most Favored Nation status.  Hell, we should never have granted the status in the first place.  I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.

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We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother

Bring the Spitfire F.MkXIVc to Aces High!!!

Sisu
-Karnak

[mrfish]

 

Originally posted by 1776:
... Chi-coms handling of this situation!!!  

i gotta ask - what's with the 'chi-com' thing?

i mean do you call americans 'am-caps'? for american capitalists?

i dont know, not a flame, just havent heard anyone call the chinese 'chi-coms' outside of the cold war era yet.
 

[easymo]

  I think the whole thing was a lucky break for GW.  With the collapse of the soviet union, most Americans developed a "the war is over"  attitude. Conveniently forgetting about the 1 billion red Chinese. This could make reconstruction of the military easier.  So much so, that I half to admit, it has crossed my mind that maybe our plane did do the ramming.

[1776]

Chi-coms=chinese communists.  Not all chinese are communists!!!!  But Chi-coms run china with a steel boot at the present time.

Just a accurate way of distinction

[Fury]

My understanding is that the US apologized for entering airspace and landing on soil without authorization.

I don't think that's much of an apology, although Chinese spin doctors will run with it, that's nothing.

It's an empty apology in that if a plane needs to make an emergency landing, you're not always going to get the proper clearance.  So in my view there was nothing to apologize for, and apologizing means nothing.

It's certainly not the sort of apology I thought the Chinese were looking for.  We didn't apologize for anything except an unauthorized emergency landing!

Apolgizing is saying you made a mistake and you are sorry about it.  We didn't make a mistake by making an emergency landing.

Read the letter for yourself at http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/11/prueher.letter.text/

We are very sorry the entering of China's airspace and the landing did not have verbal clearance..

BFD!  We certainly did not apologize for the loss of the airman.

Both President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have expressed their sincere regret over your missing pilot and aircraft


<<edit:  use of the word "regret" was a bad decision because it does in some way indicate that the US was responsible for downing the plane.  "Sorrow" would have been a much better word.  Although I don't see the word "regret" as being too big of a deal, I still think the Chinese got shafted on this one.  They didn't get anything out of this deal>>

Fury


[This message has been edited by Fury (edited 04-11-2001).]

[miko2d]

 US did not appologise.

 We wrote a letter together with the Chinese diplomatic stuff that states that we are sorry the whole mess happened. That is undoubtedly true regardless who was at fault.

 The wording of the same letter will allow chinese to pretend they do not completely understand English and translate "We are sorry" as "We appologize" - which can be done in some context but definitely not in this one.
 Of course that only works for chinese citizen who do not know English and will not get access to the original of the letter.
 Also in a few years for outsiders who are too ignorant to remember what really happened and too lazy to look up the text.

 I hope the americans make the right conclusions from that and act accordingly.
 Chinese interceptor did attack our plane by ramming and forced it to land after which the crew was taken prisoner. That may not rate a war but calling China a friend or a partned after that is silly.

 Also, a person responsible for a decision to land a damaged airctaft on the territory of an attacker should be brought on charges of treason.
 There are plenty of cases when it is justifiable for a soldier to surrender to the enemy, but that was not one of them.

 They should have ditched the plane in the sea or bailed out or whatever. It sounds risky but what the heck, it's supposed to be an army.

 P.S. I suspect that the chinese pilot who rammed the US airctaft and ejected was allowed to die in the sea or found and "disappeared" because his action was most likely not sanctioned by the government and his admition of recklessness could have caused embarassment later. Much more convenient to have a martyr...

 miko

[This message has been edited by miko2d (edited 04-11-2001).]

[Ripsnort]

 

P.S. I suspect that the chinese pilot who rammed the US airctaft and ejected was allowed to die in the
                   sea or found and "disappeared" because his action was most likely not sanctioned by the government
                   and his admition of recklessness could have caused embarassment later. Much more convenient to
                   have a martyr...

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theory...I would have to say that I agree with this considering they never replied to the US after we immediately offered Air/Sea rescue ops within  30 min. of the incident.

[funked]

Mrfish remember that for a long time, USA did not recognize the illegitimate government in Beijing.  The legitimate government moved to Taiwan, so that island was China to the USA, and its residents were the Chinese.  The guys on the mainland were the Chicoms.

[NUTTZ]

I don't care if Mr Bush had to wear a dress in Macy's front window to get the pilots back, he's the man responcible for getting them back and needed to do whatever it takes.

NUTTZ

[TheWobble]

DAMMIT!, My ICBM was almost completed...anyone wanna buy a bunker in a nice texas field??

     

[juzz]

 

Also, a person responsible for a decision to land a damaged airctaft on the territory of an attacker should be brought on charges of treason.
There are plenty of cases when it is justifiable for a soldier to surrender to the enemy, but that was not one of them.

They should have ditched the plane in the sea or bailed out or whatever. It sounds risky but what the heck, it's supposed to be an army.

???

Pilot's choice 1: Land plane in China = Good chance crew survive unhurt, but plane and crew will be captured.

Pilot's choice 2: Ditch plane in sea: Good chance crew will be injured or killed, but crew(and plane wreck) will probably be recovered by Chinese.

[Fishu]

 

Originally posted by Mighty1:
I think it was wise to get them back BUT....

I think they held our people hostage and we can't let them get away with it.

Say what ever it takes to get our people back then stop trade with them and sell ships to Taiwan. Oh and vote no on them getting the Olympics.

If they would had drop to russian soil, they would been interment, as they did in china.
Almost in any country which isn't western aligned, definately if it was a crew of a 'spy plane'
and more definately if they land at the military airport.

Though, they would be sent back eventually, without a doubt.

[paintmaw]

so do you think GWB should have let Jessy (wish I was pres ) Jackson help?