"No one wants sailors or soldiers killed, but 15 men are not worth the loss of national credibility. Ever."
Just like that spy plane of ours that landed in China. How much intel did it provide to the Chinese and how foolish did it make us look?
Its about more than looking like a fool though. Prestige in these cases can prevent further conflict or lead to conflict and the loss of many more lives.
Precisely so. If the two-bit (and even the six-bit) dictators and warlords understand that any attack on American or British forces will result in the immediate application of overwhelming force against them, they will be significantly less likely to get into harm's way.
As Theodore Roosevelt is said to have put it (remember The Wind and the Lion):
Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead
Most of the operational software running on that plane would have been trashed by the time it hit the tarmac.
Not much if any, and not especially. Thermite is a wonderful thing, and they needed to lighten the bird anyway, so all the documents, computer disks, etc went into the weighted bags, and are now spread out over a good chunk of the bottom of the South China Sea), Our guys never "confessed", nor did the President apologize beyond regretting the poor flying skills of the ChiCom jet jockey. We got the crew and the airplane back, albeit in pieces. Our military attache was given nearly immediate access to the squids on Hainn Island. It was also pretty obvious from the reactions of the local authorities there that the whole thing was *not* pre-planned.
We also got lots of pictures which made it pretty clear who ran into whom.
If anyone looked foolish, and petty, in the end, it was the ChiComs.