O'Connor pondered the Canadian reaction to this earlier event:
''I was a bit surprised in the 2002 (incident) with the response. Some of it was latent anti-Americanism.
Really? The pilot, Major Harry Schmidt, was found guilty, wasn't he? In the words of Lt.-Gen. Bruce Carlson, who handed down the verdict, Schmidt "acted shamefully...exhibiting arrogance and a lack of flight discipline."
And, given that his punishment for the death of four Canucks was a written reprimand and a loss of $5,600 in pay, I think that 1) a wee bit of anger might have been justified, and 2) the response of Canadians' was, all told, pretty darn level-headed.
Why do people like Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor worry about us offending Americans when an American pilot has just killed one of our guys...again???
3 comments:
Is it Anti-American to be Annoyed when Americans Kill Canadian Troops?
I think it depends on whether or not the Americans who did it are Democrats. If they are, then it isn't.
I'd rather get killed by a Democrat, frankly. They would at least feel guilty about it.
There's a difference between being critical and angry about the Canadian deaths caused by individual US pilots, and attributing the pilots' faults to Americans broadly, as, for example, McClelland does frequently.
Not anti-American : "The pilot was wrong, and effectively murdered our soldier through negligence"
Anti-American: "This just shows how blood thirsty Americans are and how they don't care who they kill"
That's how I see it, anyways.
Post a Comment