Originally Posted by MadeInChina

it would be idiotic to let them leave, first the situation has to be assessed and investigated before they can leave

bargaining chips??? what did china receieve???

Initally, China wanted an apology. But as the the evidence unfolded, it was clear that in fact it was the Chinese pilot that caused the accident. Unfortunatly public nationalism demanded that the US apologize and the Chinese government found itself in a bind, as releasing the crew without the 'apology' would result in a loss of face back home.

The incident was resolved by Washington offered 'regret' over the loss of the Chinese pilot. This was reported as 'the apology' back in China and the incident was closed.

China then demanded $2 Million Dollars in service charges for the crew and aircraft, this was rejected, I think it was finally settled for about $700,000.

As a cause for war, no. Frankly I even don't think the Chinese would risk a war with the US over Taiwan. Its such a small island (no offense to you Taiwanese out there) it wouldnt be worth it...

Seriously, it was an accident.

5.56, in 1992 The US announced the possibility of using nuclear weapon against China. Besides, there are "hawks" in the US, I don't see why you get so wired up about it.

further down, a country's legality is not determined by you. With such hot temper and lack of room to reason and think, you can get your friends and soldier mates killed for no good reasons.

A friend of mine who is Green Beret (stations at Moffet Field, California) tells me often how he and his friends hated seeing friends got killed and hurt because of some political differences and hot heads above.

Originally Posted by FULLMETALJACKET

Seriously, it was an accident.

just hope Amercians learn the lesson and do not try to spy on China with that damn plane anymore. (come on guys, you already have like super-advanced spy satellites)

Originally Posted by WARmachine88

just hope Amercians learn the lesson and do not try to spy on China with that damn plane anymore. (come on guys, you already have like super-advanced spy satellites)

Can only do so much with satellites.

The accident happened in international waters, so China had no grounds for acting the way it did. US pilots in the 1980 used to 'buzz' Soviet Recon Bears much in the same way. They never actually hit one though..

It was accident?
I don,t think so・・・・・

The purpose of most exercises like this one with this particular equipment is to trigger a response from the target country when you violate or nearly violate their territory and then record what they do. What bells and alarms go off, what communications are sent and from where to where. Who scrambles and are SAM's activated. Where are the radar sites that are usually silent that start tracking you. Its a dangerous but necessary game if you want to "know your enemy". Its the ELINT equivalent of an infantry probe on an enemy position. Happens all the time, just usually without the collision.

Sandy I would say it was an accident as I really don't think the Chinese pilot wanted to die and the Chinese surely did not want to lose their plane ($$$) nor the Americans. US planes intercept any plane approaching US airspace FAR before the US territorial waters. If I remember right the US engages at 150 miles, where the territorial waters are 2 or 2 1/2 miles. Nothing wrong with this, in fact given the range of current air to air or air to ground ordinance any nation would be a fool to not engage in this practice.

simple:



sooooo close..just 2 inches apart actually..

Just remember that these "Hawks" can hold quite a bit of sway with the people of their nation because they say what the people want to hear, damn the consequences. For an American example look at the War of 1812, that was a war we were ill-prepared for and were damn lucky that we did not lose our independence over it. Very few in the nation truly wanted war, I believe it was mostly limited to the northern commercial cities that were getting increasingly angry over impressment and the war hawks in say Baltimore wanted a fight. Our first biggest mistake of that war was declaring war, especially since impressment had for all essential purposes ended before war was declared and our second biggest mistake was that we put together a rag-tag army with almost no supplies or training and we tried to blame Canada. Something which they will never let us forget because they defeated the "grand American army sent to conquer Canada once and for all and make it a part of the union." even though as I mentioned with was a half-assed attempt by a group of people that were in no way prepared for war and the only successes came after the government had all but collapsed. I am sure Lenin was considered a hawk at one point, if even that, and Mao was probably too, both went on to set up the two most powerful socialist countries in the world.

My point is that even if their opinions differ from those of the majority of government that won't mean anything if they have the support of the people and overthrow the current government or somehow become the government. (not exactly sure how the government works in anything other than a democracy or one of those banana republics.)