I really feel for our American friends when their military personnel put their gov't in some tough positions. They just won't do the John Wayne thing. Why didn't Gary Powers set fire to his plane and then take the lethal tablet like he was trained to ? Why didn't the skipper of the Pueblo just open the sea cocks and sink her. The crew would have taken to the life boats and the super sensitive ship would have ended up on the bottom, in international waters. ( Hard to drag a ship from there into territorial waters ! ). And now this latest fiasco with another spy plane. Why didn't the pilot just put the stick down and belly land on the ocean, the crew take to the life rafts, the plane sinks, and Bob's your uncle. Then you can accuse the Chinese of shooting her down. The Chinese would be on the backfoot and not the Americans. So, where did the dopey bastard land it? Right in a non-friendly's backyard. When it rolled to a stop did the crew torch it ? No. Poor George Bush, he could be forgiven for thinking his military people have thumb in bum & mind in neutral.

JG / F.M.E.