SEALS 3, Pirates 0

[Targan]

Full understand your defensiveness. I don't often interject my real world opinions into this forum but I am fully on your side on that one (as I believe most here are).

Agreed. The French Naval Commandos did a good job. Any kind of hostage rescue operation is very tricky, even moreso when it is done on the water. It has not yet been determined whose bullet killed the French civilian. Could well have been a pirate that shot the poor bugger, out of spite.

[Legbreaker]

Hostage rescues in general are NASTY with casualties almost guarenteed in many cases.

Been rereading my Special Operations book and last night the airplane hostage scenario in particular. It struck me then that even with the terrorist armed with only light weapons, chances were that a number of hostages, if not the entry team themselves, were going to get well and truely toasted unless they came up with something amazing.

Even feeding something like a sleeping gas into the plane probably wouldn't work, since the moment they realised something was wrong, they'd simply open up.

So, not knowing the details of the French operation, I can still understand just how easy it is for a stray bullet (let alone an aimed one) to cause untold grief. It's a miracle and testament to the SF training and skill that more aren't killed every time they have to make an entry.

[Mohoender]

Okay, you two are missing what I said and I said what I did because I misinterpreted Mohoender's direct object of who he holds responsible. Kato, I wasn't talking about the media, I was talking about Mo's sentence that he holds them responsible, to paraphrase.

I know all about the media. Thanks for the lesson though.

That being said, I agree with you Mohoender, I place blame on the victims. I was just going to defend the sailors because in the media world, most people are quick and satisfied to blame everything on the military and I'm defensive of that.

Now I understand as well. Sorry I might have not been clear enough. I'm not holding the media responsible (and I'm only talking about the french ones) but I'm surely criticizing them. However, my point was only about the victims as you now understand. To make a parallel, the US captain did his best to protect his crew, the french one did his best to put his in danger.

[Mohoender]

Agreed. The French Naval Commandos did a good job. Any kind of hostage rescue operation is very tricky, even moreso when it is done on the water. It has not yet been determined whose bullet killed the French civilian. Could well have been a pirate that shot the poor bugger, out of spite.

Fully agree. Currently, the french have a tendancy to look for responsibility first. That was done in that case and that was done when we lost 10 soldiers in Afghanistan. They jump to conclusions before hand. Saddly it's equally true for our politicians and governments. Hopefully, I have the feeling that it is not the case anymore with the population. As a result, we distrust our medias and our politicians.

[Caradhras]

we distrust our medias and our politicians.

Always wise in my opinion!

[Mohoender]

Always wise in my opinion!

Right but, at some point, it might just be a little too much.