If you can't be trusted with the dangerous toy, you shouldn’t be allowed near it.
That applies both to the captain of the Vincennes and whoever fired the Buk. And someone out spotlighting with a rifle.
In both cases, a false assumption seems to have been made - the ame false assumption:
- Vincennes: it isn't relying on military radio frequencies, therefore it must be an enemy.
- Buk: it didn't return a friendly military IFF, therefore it must be an enemy.
- Spotlighter: it looked like a fox. Sorry about your cat.
More similarities:
- The Vincennes captain got a medal, and the president of the time showed his priorities by stating "I refuse to apologise for the United States!"
- both shooters did not know that normal civil aviation was occurring in the area, and was quite normal - they both saw the entire area as a war zone (rightly or wrongly).
I put in the example of the spotlighting shooter to show just how irresponsible it is to give dangerous toys to idiots. You wouldn't do, but nations do, occasionally. And the shooter would probably not deny responsibility.
dodo