No Justice

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

WASHINGTON - One of the two U.S. military pilots who bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan last year will be allowed to retire, while the other could lose a month's pay, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

 

 

 

Maj. Harry Schmidt and Maj. William Umbach won't be criminally prosecuted for accidentally killing four members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in April 2002.

 

 

Lt.-Gen. Bruce Carlson, the 8th Air Force commander who reviewed the case, announced on Thursday the pilots will not face criminal prosecution, but will be disciplined in an administrative forum.

 

 

Schmidt dropped a 225-kilogram laser-guided bomb on the Canadian troops who were conducting night-time training exercises near Kandahar on April 18, 2002.

 

Carlson said air force commanders should decide whether Schmidt should be prosecuted on lesser charges, including failure to make sure the targets of his bombing weren't allies.

 

His maximum non-judicial punishment would be to lose a month's pay, be confined to quarters for one month and have his travel restricted for two months.

 

 

The seasoned pilot, who once served as a fighter pilot instructor, will also face a flight evaluation board that will decide whether he can continue flying.

 

Umbach has been given a letter of reprimand. He has told the air force he wants to retire and Carlson recommended that he be allowed to do so.

 

The pilots were facing charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty. Conviction on those charges could have brought a sentence of up to 64 years in prison.

 

Some of the Canadian soldiers' families have said they want the U.S. military to take the fliers' wings away.

Dick Murtha, who represents the family of Pte. Richard Green, one of the men killed, said the families are considering a civil suit if they don't believe justice is done.

 

 

 

Written by CBC News Online staff

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

As a Canadian I disagree, I don't think they should have to face a court martial. Too big a deal is being made over this issue up here, when it was simply the type of mistake that will always happen in armed combat. God, I remember when I first found out about this, people were going crazy. The first thing I heard when someone told me was "the US dropped a bomb" which combined with the way people were going on about it, made me think they had dropped a nuclear bomb. When I found out what really happened, my reaction was more of a "so what".

 

This is a non-issue, everyone in Canada who is still fuming over it should just forget about it. These guys made an honest wartime mistake that has been repeated many times in various forms, before and after they did it.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

I have to apoligize. I pushed enter before I meant to.

 

It's supposed to Say "No Justice or Fair Result?"

[Guest Cancer Marney]

I agree with HMW. Our government didn't go apeshit at Israel over the USS Liberty incident; these sorts of things happen. Unless the pilots were guilty of criminal negligence, and it doesn't seem that they were, there's no reason to get so worked up over it.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

I think the press is partly responsible for this becoming an issue with the public, and other similar incidents as well. The media worship technology, and so they love to talk romantically about how precise JDAM bombs and other similar weapons are, when even the military makes no claims as outlandish as the press do. The public is fed information about how the US weapons are completely precise and never fail, and then when an accident does occur, people start questioning how a "smart bomb" could miss its target because the media told them these weapons were 100% accurate. I for one have never heard anyone in the military even attempt to claim that GPS guided weapons systems never miss their targets.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Very good point. Also, note that we've fired thousands of cruise missiles absolutely accurately - but the only strikes the press really cares about are the ones that go astray. Understandable, of course; they're paid to titillate and good news just isn't as good for ratings as bad news. But "understandable" isn't a synonym for "accurate" or "honourable."

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

I don't think these men should be sent to jail or anything extreme. But they were ordered not to fire and did so anyway. It was a known fact the Canadian troops were going to be in that area as well.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

Yeah, I've heard that too. I'm just not willing to sit in judgement because I don't have the full facts of the incident. Whatever the case, though, I think we can all agree that this was blown way out of proportion by everyone involved.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Very good point. Also, note that we've fired thousands of cruise missiles absolutely accurately - but the only strikes the press really cares about are the ones that go astray.

There's also the problem that accidents happen. Before Gulf War I we were told these things could be fired through doorways, and accidents still occured.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Yeah, I've heard that too. I'm just not willing to sit in judgement because I don't have the full facts of the incident. Whatever the case, though, I think we can all agree that this was blown way out of proportion by everyone involved.

Totally. I really feel for the famalies of the men who were killed but I think the Pilots are being punished enough as it is by having to live with what they've done.