donkey Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 OP title - do we have Libyan allies? Unless they are expecting Gaddaffi to overthrow his own regime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj.scuba Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Unless they are expecting Gaddaffi to overthrow his own regime. They're not our allies though are they, they're just civilians that we're mandated to protect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donkey Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 They're not our allies though are they, they're just civilians that we're mandated to protect. You are splitting hairs. They are at war. They went to help the American pilots, thus indicating which side they are on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 They had a little sign on them saying 'We're going to help the downed crew, we're not going to shoot them' did they? If your mate jumped out of an aircraft (and at that time you had no idea why the aircraft had caught fire, but you were both in an area where it was likely people were going to shoot at you) and your mate was on the ground with some people running towards him, Would you think it likely that those people were going to invite him to a party or to kick his head in? The aircraft which fired between the people running towards the downed crew and the crew themselves acted in a very reasonable manner. Amazingly, they got it wrong. - This time, the people were indeed running to help the downed crew. As for 'Shooting 6 people' (the headline) the body of the article says: 'Six Libyan villagers are recovering in hospital after being shot by American soldiers coming in to rescue the U.S. pilots whose plane crash-landed in a field. The helicopter strafed the ground as it landed in a field outside Benghazi beside the downed U.S. Air Force F-15E Eagle which ran into trouble during bombing raid last night.' Not at all unreasonable - but unfortunate. The aircraft didn't crash land, it crashed. - More than a slight difference. If -as the article (and others) - have said 6 people were wounded, then it's likely that they were hit by debris kicked up by the guns in the helicopter. The bullets would probably do rather more damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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