That whole "someone might take it out on us" is such a pitiful excuse.
Have to agree with Udie. Point 2 speaks for itself, and point 1 is not an excuse -- it's a reality. Look at the cable-car incident in Italy a few years back. Was the A-6 pilot guilty of negliance in the deaths of those people? Sure, but there were certainly local politicians who had issues with NATO and the US who were working to create a show trial instead of trying to find justice. Did the pilot get off lightly? Perhaps, but we give the people risking their lives in such a dangerous but absolutely necessiary profession some leeway (you can debate if its too much or too little) to make mistakes, even if they end up killing people. An alternative for Europeans who don't like an american military presence is to massively increase your domestic spending on the military and take self-defense fully into your own hands. Then you can do with your military pilots as you wish.
Look a Europe today. Want to win votes in France and other parts of Europe? Bash America (at least that's what the British papers and BBC say). Obviously, you Europeans know your local politics better than I do, so tell me, is it unreasonable for an American to expect a politics-free trial in this European court?
Come on, Hortlund. When the US invades most of Europe, and starts gassing northern european Aryans, and the rest of the World has to unite to drive them out, then try who you like and do with them as you wish. Hell, I certainly won't feel bad about it. In fact, please free me from whatever camp I was put in after I burned an American flag in protest of such naked, nationalist agression (wow, got an extra one in there
).
Charon
