Well I think there are a couple of things here -

1) How does anyone in this room know whether or not Calley felt bad or good about what happened at My Lai 4? I personnally knew two members of his unit and that he felt good or indifferent is pure crap. Christ on a crutch - get real here.

2) First reports indicate the pilot was ordered to not drop lethal ordinance on the area in question. So - did some tired troop hook the wrong connections up to the bomb? Did the pilot honestly have ground fire coming at him from within the demarcation area? Not unheard of bad guys coming into a secure area and raising a little hell to draw fire into a friendly area. Now let's see - could the Taliban possibly sneak into their own back yard and pull that off? Hmmmm - I'd say yes.

3) Could some higher ranking officer be covering their own ass by denying the order they really gave? Hmmmm - has that ever happened? The Air Force has a quite good legal system and if the pilot did something innappropriate he will be tried for it - in a court of law - and not some buffoonish chat board by angry unknowing people. Haven't we learned yet that what is first presented by the media is rarely - if ever - the truth of the matter?

4) And if you don't want to ally with someone then how about we stop trade with that country. Don't want to share the risks then don't share the profit.

5) I can assure you that not all of the artillery and air support I called in my tour of duty went exactly where it was supposed to. It doesn't work that way. We do our best and as humans we make mistakes. God forgive us if all we can do is point fingers and blame someone else for our collective involvement in a disastrous situation.

Steve