I'm sorry if this has been beaten to death but this thread moves fast. I just wanted to give my 2 cents as a guy who still remembers filling out his paperwork that they hand to the pjs (pararescue) team to verify your identity in the event you end up in a situation like this pilot. Now I wasn't at nearly as high of a risk of this as a pilot but it brings me great joy to see on full display the ideological disconnect publicly preserved on the record.
In war civilians die and there's really no workaround for this problem though it's obviously much less of an issue then it was in early bombing wars like WWII where we would just level cities to destroy factory production. The key is the intent and the reaction. Despite what counterintel Wu Mao types and commie faggots believe there is a very strong reluctance to harm innocent people. As an example from a Tac P friend when he was calling in air support he would literally have in his words "Command in one ear and JAG in the other if there was any target sensitivity" He explained to me that there needed to be a real time signoff for Mosques (which are every block) and many other targets during an active firefight. Our enemies aim at the churches.
It's the same shit with this pilot. Oh some planes got stuck in the sand? That sucks I'm glad we got our boy out. We have pararescue which are just top tier badasses whos entire job is to get you out of a bad situation. Our pilots drop with guns, food, money, beacons and their only job is to hang out until we drop in people who's entire job is to kill everyone in the way of saving your fucking ass. As someone who had friends go through that pipeline you're talking about 18 months to 2 years just in training with a very high washout rate and casual things like watercon where they repeatedly drown you.
People die in war, it's going to happen but we aren't fucking Russia we aren't marching people across fields as drones kill them. I knew if the worst happen and the FOB got overrun that there would be a rapid response team, air support, and worst case special forces that would be deployed to save my dumbass. That brought me legitimate comfort when I was put in situations that were difficult, and to be clear I'm not some door kicking special forces operator badass. Obviously I was armed but my primary weapon on a day to day basis was a socket set.
So when you see people complaining about equipment losses to save a pilot and "risking" special forces guys who literally exist to do this job... Remember that their third worlders with shit covered hands who literally can't understand the idea that we go back for our people. They are so stupid they will admit this openly and proudly and scoff that a machine broke to save an American. This is because they are worse less then machines and they understand and even agree with that.
I've been thinking about what it is that sets good armies apart from shit armies a while ago, and that's pretty much the answer I came to back then.
I don't consider myself a brave man, but in my service I was never at any point scared. Nervous maybe, but never scared.
That's because no matter what I do or where I'm sent, I trust the IDF not to treat me as cannon fodder, speed bump, or be sent to my death by some career nepobaby trying to justify writing "I tried" in his report.
I know that the IDF
in its entirety has my back, and even though I was never anything as important as a commando or a pilot, I know that
IF I ended up in a situation like this, planes, drones, artillery and anything else on hand would rain down hellfire on anything that moves in my general area and the CSAR boys will come get me. All that just to get lil ol' me home.
And I can only imagine that in the US armed forces, that gets cranked up to 11.
I think that's what the anti-western crowd is missing and why it starts furiously circle-jerking over destroyed equipment.
What would give
them confidence to march is being behind technology and impenetrable tools.
They don't trust their command structure, they know they'd be thrown away to keep up appearances and they're kept in line by fear, fear of the beating they'd get or fear of what would be done to their loved ones if they "betray the cause".
They project this onto western countries, see its mighty war machines, and assume the difference is that the west can buy their troops an invulnerable death star, and that's why they're not afraid.
(Now that I think of it, that's also why they celebrate every single thing that looks kind of like bloodying the US's nose, in their mind it shatters the Zio-merican delusion that they're immune to bullets)
They cannot entertain the idea that we genuinely and unironically trust one another, have each others back and that we care a lot about what happens to our peers, subordinates and even our commanders.
Yes, I'm saying without a shred of irony or hyperbole that the western military X-factor is camaraderie, trust and the power of friendship.