I was watching the latest news on CNN regarding the unfortunate accident between the American and Chinese military aircraft, and they mentioned that The People's Daily was posting candid comments from all countries. I was pleased to hear this because candor is the cornerstone of honesty, and honesty is the cornerstone of friendship.

My father spent over a year in China in the American Air Force during World War II fighting the Japanese, and he developed a great respect and admiration for the Chinese people. As a result, I am keeping my mind open about what happened in the recent incident.

Being able to comment freely on this Website is greatly encouraging to me.

My government should have begun its dialog with yours with a simple inquiry as to what had happened, rather than an offensive demand for the immediate release of the crew and aircraft: presuming at once that China was in the wrong. (After all, young warriors are young warriors and sometimes they act impulsively.)

It is good that you are treating our aircrew well. Detention is not pleasant under any circumstances, but it is clear that they are not being treated like prisoners. It suggests that the People's Army recognizes the element of mutual bad luck in this incident.

The only suggestion I have is that both sides find another word for "apology". Our friendship is too old and too strong to let a stalemate over semantics mess things up!

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