Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Oh yeah... (bitching)

The stupid thing in today's paper is the verdict--well, actually the punishment--of the friendly-fire pilot.

He was told by the controller to hold fire, then said "I'm being fired at, I am attacking in self-defence."

Who does he think he is, the Lone Ranger? (On a side note, you should notice that most U.S. heroes, real or fictional, act alone and independent of the law, whereas Canadian heroes, if there are any, are usually reputed for working with, on, or for the law)

The judge blasted him by saying he used this as an excuse to "wage his own war" (which I agree with), but the guy must have had some sort of Strategic Missile Defence, because he only got hit with a $5600US penalty. Sure, that may be one month's pay, but I mean, shit: does that even cover the cost of the warhead he used, much less the lives and pain of the victims?

Personally, I don't care about the fact that the victims were Canadians. I care about the fact that innocent people were killed by some renegade pilot. In fact, if this happened to non-US-Allies, do you think this would have gotten any attention at all? I'd bet it happens all the time.

- RG.

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