Officials: Pilot Of Downed F-16 Still Missing In Iraq

[A4sForever]

..... One could also debate the what advantages the Iraqis would gain by keeping him as a secret prisoner vice a bargaining chip in some kind of negotiation.....

Roger that ... his "real" value is in everyone knowing that Saddam has/had him ... and using him.

 

[TurnandBurn55]

Mine is that he died in the crash. It doesn't seem like any of the "evidence" is conclusive one way or another as to when he died. One could also debate the what advantages the Iraqis would gain by keeping him as a secret prisoner vice a bargaining chip in some kind of negotiation. Your average aviator is probably of only marginal value for extraction of intelligence, so I would think that the bargaining chip option would be the way Hussein would play things. Again, there's probably no way to really ever know what happened, but the prospect of a secret Iraqi conspiracy seems infinitely less probable.

Brett

Evidence versus motivation... if the Iraqi story is true... that flight suit lay out in the desert year after year. It clearly didn't.

If we're getting into motivation, we can get into the national security level discussion... "Hey, I don't have WMDs... let's just let the UN see I don't have WMDs, then all this BS since '91 will end, and I'll be left the f#ck alone... that can only benefit me!!". Occam's razor! Occam's razor!

Kinda begs the question... who decided Saddam thought rationally? Me? You?? Can someone please explain why we assumed he did?

 

[Brett327]

Evidence versus motivation... if he died in the crash, the flight suit HAD to be his... it clearly isn't.

If we're getting into motivation, we can get into the national security level discussion... "Hey, I don't have WMDs... let's just let the UN see I don't have WMDs, then all this BS since '91 will end, and I'll be left the f#ck alone... that can only benefit me!!". Occam's razor!

That whole concept of "logic" worked real well there too, huh?

Settle down, Beavis. I don't think anyone knows for certain who's flight suit it was. Even if it wasn't, I don't think the only (or even most likely) alternative is that he was captured alive. One can imagine all kinds of possibilities that are much simpler then conspiracy on such a grand scale.

Brett

 

[Brett327]

Kinda begs the question... who decided Saddam thought rationally? Me? You?? Can someone please explain why we assumed he did?

Now you're going off on a tangent - make up your mind. Making one (or a series) of irrational decisions doesn't imply an individual will make only irrational decisions. Rationality isn't an absolute condition or state of mind.

Brett

 

[Flash]

Evidence versus motivation... if the Iraqi story is true... that flight suit lay out in the desert year after year. It clearly didn't.

If we're getting into motivation, we can get into the national security level discussion... "Hey, I don't have WMDs... let's just let the UN see I don't have WMDs, then all this BS since '91 will end, and I'll be left the f#ck alone... that can only benefit me!!". Occam's razor! Occam's razor!

Kinda begs the question... who decided Saddam thought rationally? Me? You?? Can someone please explain why we assumed he did?

I would not be suprised if the flight suit was planted, but there is a pretty reasonable explanation of why it may it have been there. This is all from memory from what I read an article I read some time ago, so some of the details might be hazy.

The crash was 'discovered' by a Qatari military officer who was falconering in the area. I believe he reported the crash back to the US and we requested to inspect the site. His description and the condition that it was in when the US inspected it a year later were a bit different. It was obvious in the intervening year that the site had been altered. Now why the site had been altered is a mystery but I am with Brett, I see no reason why the Iraqis would keep this guy under wraps for a long time. The most reasonalbe explanations is that he died when he ejected or died while in captivity, either accidently or intentionally.

 

[Brett327]

I would not be suprised if the flight suit was planted, but there is a pretty reasonable explanation of why it may it have been there. This is all from memory from what I read an article I read some time ago, so some of the details might be hazy.

The crash was 'discovered' by a Qatari military officer who was falconering in the area. I believe he reported the crash back to the US and we requested to inspect the site. His description and the condition that it was in when the US inspected it a year later were a bit different. It was obvious in the intervening year that the site had been altered. Now why the site had been altered is a mystery but I am with Brett, I see no reason why the Iraqis would keep this guy under wraps for a long time. The most reasonalbe explanations is that he died when he ejected or died while in captivity, either accidently or intentionally.

With an attitude like that, T&B will come at you with a quiver full of exclamation points! Thank goodness there's no (or I'm just too lazy to look for an) ASCII version of the interrobang. The only appropriate terminator for...
WTF

Brett

 

[raptor10]

Thank goodness there's no ASCII version of the interrobang.

YOU MEAN LIKE THIS‽‽‽

 

[Brett327]

YOU MEAN LIKE THIS‽‽‽

Way to ruin a good joke. And to think I was beginning to like you.

Brett