Talk:Marc Léger

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[edit] Unauthorized

I've removed the word "unauthorized" from the laser-guided bomb description as it is POV. The book Friendly Fire by Michael Friscolanti discusses the subject in detail (ISBN: 0470836865) particularly in the chapters on the Article 32 hearing. My issues are these

  • there seems to have been reasonable doubt that Major Schmidt received an order not to engage before he had asserted his right to self defence (ie the radio signal "Friendlies, Khandahar" came after he had dropped his ordnance)
  • Even had he received the order not to drop, he had the right to self defence which is repeated throughout the description of the decision tree throughout several chapters of the book - many of which are verbatim copies of the actual testimonty given to both boards of inquiry as well as the Article 32 hearing. He was authorized to act in self defence, and given that no one would dream of saying his intent was to bomb coalition forces, we have to assume his good faith in believing he was delivering ordannce onto a perceived enemy position - which he was authorized to do under the ROEs for self defence.

Therefore, the use of the word "unauthorized" is incorrect, as well as POV, and should be deleted. See the Wikipedia policy on NPOV (neutral point of view). It is misleading to use the word "unauthorized" - the sentence without it delivers the facts of the matter and nothing more.Michael Dorosh 05:34, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Also, the statement "two planes dropped a bomb" is non-sensical - only Major Schmidt's plane delivered ordnance to the target.Michael Dorosh 05:36, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

"I believed that the projectiles posed a real and present danger to our flight and specifically to my flight lead...I believed at the time that my flight lead's transmission to 'check master arm, check laser arm,' indicated he concurred with my decision that the situation required self defence." - Major Schmidt during his apology - see also the friendly fire page linked to from this one for more details.(Friscolati, pp.420-421)

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