Latest / Stuff You Should Know / How No-fly Zones Work

Transcript

How No-fly Zones Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know front House Stuffworks
0:04
Speaker 1: dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
0:12
Speaker 1: Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant mad as heck
0:16
Speaker 1: and he's not gonna take it anymore. I said heck.
0:20
Speaker 1: I revised a classic movie quote in the heck Yeah, network, Man,
0:25
Speaker 1: have you ever seen that? Have you seen that recently?
0:27
Speaker 1: I've never seen it. It was on Netflix streaming and
0:30
Speaker 1: I hadn't mind. Some human passed it up. Well you
0:32
Speaker 1: should watch it again because you'll watch it now and go. Man,
0:35
Speaker 1: when was this made so far ahead of its time
0:38
Speaker 1: as far as like how things are in the media, like, uh,
0:42
Speaker 1: coma yeah, but when you watch network back then people
0:47
Speaker 1: said things like how ridiculous, like stuff like this could
0:49
Speaker 1: never happen. Oh, I see it's prescient, right, very much.
0:52
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'll have to watch it then. Yeah, it's
0:54
Speaker 1: a good one. That's uh is it? Like? Um, what
0:57
Speaker 1: is it? What's that Aaron Sorkin show? I don't like
1:00
Speaker 1: antwork news Hour? Yeah that just thinks? Is that what
1:04
Speaker 1: it's called? News? News Room? Yeah? I didn't care for
1:07
Speaker 1: it other than the fact that it stars our guest
1:09
Speaker 1: starred Mr Paul Schneider, who's one of my one of
1:12
Speaker 1: my boys. So uh, sometimes people accuse that show being preachy.
1:16
Speaker 1: What do you think? I just I'm not a sworking guy,
1:18
Speaker 1: so he's a little worthy for me. I liked west Twink,
1:21
Speaker 1: I didn't watch it. You never watched West Wing, not
1:23
Speaker 1: one episode. Guarantee you you would like it. You think
1:27
Speaker 1: it was he I hate to say this, but it
1:31
Speaker 1: was like his his masterpiece from beginning. I'm not kidding, Chuck.
1:34
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, this is somebody who didn't like Studio sixty,
1:37
Speaker 1: who doesn't like Newsroom. West Wing from beginning to end
1:41
Speaker 1: was just really great. I'll try it, but I swear
1:44
Speaker 1: the way that guy writes, I'm always just like nobody talks.
1:47
Speaker 1: I'm with you, I'm totally with you. But this cast
1:50
Speaker 1: of characters, the characters that he wrote, the actors, they
1:55
Speaker 1: pulled it off. I've never seen a shot Paul Schneider
1:59
Speaker 1: is not on it. I'm coming to your house this
2:00
Speaker 1: afternoon and we're gonna watch them. Okay, okay, uh So
2:04
Speaker 1: I guess that's the segue for no flies on. Not
2:07
Speaker 1: a bad setup because this is political and presidential. I
2:11
Speaker 1: have something, actually, I have a bit of an intro. Okay, well,
2:14
Speaker 1: let's let's hear it. You've heard of the Wright brothers
2:17
Speaker 1: Dayton's Pride, Orville and Wilbur Wright. Oh yeah, can joined twins? Yes, no,
2:22
Speaker 1: they weren't. But they did fly. They did build the
2:25
Speaker 1: first airplane that flew, and they flew it out at
2:28
Speaker 1: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. And after they had that flight,
2:32
Speaker 1: actually I think before they undertook that flight, while they
2:36
Speaker 1: were still in the development stage. Uh, they went to
2:38
Speaker 1: the United States government and said, hey, War Department, you
2:42
Speaker 1: want in on this action. Not once, not twice, but
2:45
Speaker 1: thrice did the War Department turn the right brothers down,
2:48
Speaker 1: say what good our planes in the warfare? Exactly? Luckily
2:52
Speaker 1: there was a very smart person heading the Post Office
2:55
Speaker 1: Department who said, Okay, maybe you shouldn't drop bricks out
2:59
Speaker 1: of airplane down to people's heads, but we could use
3:02
Speaker 1: this to deliver the mail. Martin ben Ostrin, right, to
3:07
Speaker 1: heck with the auto gyro, We're gonna start using this
3:10
Speaker 1: Wright Brothers plane to deliver mail. And for three years
3:14
Speaker 1: the only aircraft that were in service under the United
3:17
Speaker 1: States government was for delivering mail, and then a postal
3:21
Speaker 1: carrier and as a pilot accidentally dropped a mail bomb
3:24
Speaker 1: and they went, wow, that's a good idea, works very well. Yeah,
3:28
Speaker 1: it didn't take very long for the War Department and
3:29
Speaker 1: be like, oh, okay, maybe we should use this. And
3:31
Speaker 1: then by nineteen fourteen the aviation section of the Signal
3:35
Speaker 1: Corps was set up and all of a sudden, planes
3:38
Speaker 1: were militarized. Within just years of their invention, they were
3:42
Speaker 1: being used to murder people. Yeah, and this article points
3:45
Speaker 1: out in seven Spanish Fastest dropped a bunch of bombs
3:50
Speaker 1: on the town of Guernica. A hundred thousand pounds of
3:54
Speaker 1: explosives killed sixteen hundred people. And yeah, well, not only
3:58
Speaker 1: was it the explosive, people were running on a town
4:00
Speaker 1: and they were gunning them down civilis. Yeah, so that's
4:03
Speaker 1: what fascists do. As outrageous and horrible as that is,
4:07
Speaker 1: it was definitely the beginning of what would be a
4:09
Speaker 1: long romance in warfare with the plane. Yeah, you had
4:13
Speaker 1: the red baron Eddie Rick and Backer. Uh. They're a
4:18
Speaker 1: very long, bloody history associated with planes and war. Um,
4:23
Speaker 1: When the fascists in Spain used planes to take out
4:28
Speaker 1: a lot of civilians, the world was, you know, appropriately disgusted.
4:35
Speaker 1: It wasn't a whole lot that could be done, And
4:37
Speaker 1: it actually wasn't until the very early nineteen nineties that
4:41
Speaker 1: people figured out a way to use planes to thwart
4:44
Speaker 1: planes from being used against civilian populations by their own government. Yeah.
4:49
Speaker 1: I thought no fly zones had been around long before that,
4:51
Speaker 1: so this was very eye opening. I had no idea
4:53
Speaker 1: that it was in the nineteen nineties when they first
4:55
Speaker 1: did this. Right, no fly zones are new. They've only
4:58
Speaker 1: been used three times. Yeah, I didn't know. Like it
5:00
Speaker 1: just seems like there's it's something that they just commonly do,
5:04
Speaker 1: but it's kind of a big deal to issue and
5:05
Speaker 1: no flies one. And the reason why is because what
5:07
Speaker 1: you're doing is intervening in a sovereign nation, undermining the
5:12
Speaker 1: power of the ruler of that nation, choosing sides in
5:16
Speaker 1: a way you're saying, at the very least, I'm not
5:18
Speaker 1: gonna let you just slaughter these civilians. I'm not going
5:21
Speaker 1: to cast my lot one way or the other, really,
5:23
Speaker 1: but I'm going to protect these civilians. And uh, it
5:26
Speaker 1: takes a United Nations mandate to to even get started,
5:31
Speaker 1: that's right. So, um, you want to talk about the
5:33
Speaker 1: first one, yes. Uh, let's harken back to the spring
5:36
Speaker 1: of nine. I'm in college drinking a lot of beer.
5:41
Speaker 1: That's where I first discovered beer. I was drinking a
5:44
Speaker 1: lot of beer too, and I wasn't in college. Well,
5:46
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. I was. Um So I remember sitting
5:50
Speaker 1: around and watching like this stuff on CNN for the
5:53
Speaker 1: first time, like being interested in politics really for the
5:56
Speaker 1: first time. Oh yeah, yeah, that's kind of when I
5:58
Speaker 1: got into stuff like that. Well, that was the first
6:00
Speaker 1: war that was really televised. I mean, Vietnam was, but
6:04
Speaker 1: this was the one that This is the first one
6:06
Speaker 1: that had like twenty four hour coverage. Was the was
6:09
Speaker 1: the first goal four and it was spectacular to watch. Uh,
6:13
Speaker 1: it was pretty enthralling, especially when you're, you know, twenty
6:16
Speaker 1: years old and you're sitting around with your friends drinking beer. Yeah,
6:19
Speaker 1: look at that's good. Safe in Athens, Georgia. Um. So,
6:22
Speaker 1: what happened There was a guy named Saddam Hussein he
6:27
Speaker 1: um was not doing very nice things to the people
6:32
Speaker 1: in Kuwait. Well, we'll put and the Curtish minority in
6:36
Speaker 1: northern Iraq was encouraged by American radio broadcast to two
6:42
Speaker 1: revolt like take a stand, and so they did, and
6:47
Speaker 1: Sadam Hussein Um sent gunships and with napalm and chemical
6:51
Speaker 1: weapons and helicopters, because that's that's what you do. That's
6:54
Speaker 1: what he does when you have a civilian population that's
6:56
Speaker 1: unhappy with your rule. Yeah, and so they fled, basically
6:59
Speaker 1: hun the thousands of them, uh Curtish civilians fled Um
7:03
Speaker 1: and sort of got wedged there at the Turkish border
7:06
Speaker 1: because the turch were like, yeah, we feel for you,
7:08
Speaker 1: but stay there, so don't cross over here. They didn't
7:11
Speaker 1: have food and water. And H W. Bush President George H. W.
7:15
Speaker 1: Bush and allies in Europe said, you know what, oh boy,
7:20
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do here because we kind
7:21
Speaker 1: of encourage these people to do this and now they're
7:23
Speaker 1: stuck in a between a rock and a hard place.
7:26
Speaker 1: And but we really don't think we should invade and
7:29
Speaker 1: remove Sadam Hussein like with all of our Mike, yeah,
7:32
Speaker 1: let's get another ten twelve years exactly. Or we could
7:37
Speaker 1: go to the U N in NTE and say, hey,
7:40
Speaker 1: how about passing a resolution against this guy? Right, they did,
7:44
Speaker 1: but they did they said, Okay, we're gonna um deliver
7:47
Speaker 1: humanitarian aid to these Kurds who are trapped along the
7:50
Speaker 1: Turkish border, and Hussain, if you do anything to interfere,
7:55
Speaker 1: we're going to bomb you. We're going to take on
7:58
Speaker 1: your guys that you send an inner fear at the
8:00
Speaker 1: very least, right. Um. And not only that, we're establishing
8:03
Speaker 1: a safe zone for these people. It's above the thirty
8:06
Speaker 1: six parallel. And uh, if you send any planes over there,
8:10
Speaker 1: we're gonna take them on. So this is what we're
8:12
Speaker 1: going to call a no fly zone. It was the
8:14
Speaker 1: first one, and Saddam Hussein went, no fly zone. I've
8:17
Speaker 1: never heard of such a thing. That's stupid, And the
8:19
Speaker 1: UN said that's because this brand new jerk, right, And
8:22
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, I'm the first one. He went first. First,
8:25
Speaker 1: he's so um, they did this, and then second no
8:29
Speaker 1: fly zone. Um. South of the thirty second parallel was
8:33
Speaker 1: established to protect the Shiite Muslims, who also rose up
8:36
Speaker 1: under the encouragement of the United States. If you're interested
8:39
Speaker 1: in this kind of thing, check out three Kings. It
8:42
Speaker 1: was a lot to do about that. It was after
8:44
Speaker 1: the uprisings had started, and also after the time the
8:48
Speaker 1: United States didn't support them. Remember the one scene where
8:52
Speaker 1: when the guy made Markey Mark drink the oil. That
8:54
Speaker 1: was hardcore man, a little over the ham fisted of
8:58
Speaker 1: David O. Russey. Yeah, you don't like that guy that
9:01
Speaker 1: you get problems with him. I like Three Kings a Lot. Okay,
9:04
Speaker 1: what else has he done? The next thing Silver li
9:05
Speaker 1: Ex Playbook he didn't like. I thought it was okay. Yeah, see,
9:09
Speaker 1: you don't love him, but I like Three Kings a Lot.
9:11
Speaker 1: I thought that was a good movie. Yeah, me too.
9:13
Speaker 1: Uh So no fly zone is going on. Sidom Hussein
9:17
Speaker 1: violates said no fly zone. He's like, yeah, well, what's
9:21
Speaker 1: gonna happen? Let me send some jets up there. And
9:24
Speaker 1: we responded by or the coalition I should say, responded
9:27
Speaker 1: by shooting down these aircraft or destroying just you know,
9:31
Speaker 1: military targets on the ground. Because that's, as we found out,
9:35
Speaker 1: one of the parts of a no fly zone to
9:38
Speaker 1: be effective is to also bomb like radar equipment stuff
9:42
Speaker 1: on the ground that can get jets up in the
9:44
Speaker 1: air and guide them disabled. Their force can also find
9:47
Speaker 1: your jets, So you want to disable their force, like
9:49
Speaker 1: you said, but you also want to protect your own force.
9:52
Speaker 1: The thing was this is very new. Uh The U
9:55
Speaker 1: N was a little squeamish at the idea of undermining
9:59
Speaker 1: again a sab and ruler, a jerk, everyone agreed, but
10:02
Speaker 1: still a sovereign ruler and kind of one of the
10:05
Speaker 1: stabilizing forces of the Middle East, whether the US liked
10:08
Speaker 1: it or not. Um So they just kind of said, yeah,
10:13
Speaker 1: protect these people, but just really you got to take
10:16
Speaker 1: it all in a case by case basis. Can't be
10:18
Speaker 1: the least bit aggressive. You have to be completely reactive.
10:21
Speaker 1: And even then maybe we should just kind of chase
10:23
Speaker 1: him out of the note flies him rather than shoot
10:25
Speaker 1: him down over time after sortie after sortie after shorty.
10:29
Speaker 1: They started just by attrition, wearing down Hussain's defenses and
10:34
Speaker 1: his um, his air force, just because he kept sting
10:37
Speaker 1: a man and we kept shooting him down until two
10:39
Speaker 1: thousand three when we, you know, went in in full
10:42
Speaker 1: force and took out something using right, the northern part
10:46
Speaker 1: and the southern part of Iraq was off limits to
10:48
Speaker 1: Sadam Hussein for twelve years his own country. There is
10:51
Speaker 1: a wide swath in the middle that he could move
10:53
Speaker 1: around him, but anything else he wasn't allowed. Okay, so
10:56
Speaker 1: those are the that's the first use of the not
10:59
Speaker 1: fly zone ever. Uh. In the early nineteen nineties, when
11:02
Speaker 1: Yugoslavia broke up, UM, NATO forces said, all right, how
11:06
Speaker 1: about another no fly zone. We're gonna authorize this one.
11:10
Speaker 1: It's nine over the breakaway region of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
11:15
Speaker 1: It was called Operation Denied Flight, which is terrible little
11:19
Speaker 1: on the nose. I just want to talk about on
11:20
Speaker 1: the David R. Russell named said mission and it was
11:26
Speaker 1: gonna block Bosnian Serbs who controlled all the military aircraft
11:30
Speaker 1: in that region, right, and who were using it against
11:32
Speaker 1: all of their neighbors that they were um going to
11:34
Speaker 1: war against, specifically the um Muslims, Yeah, Serbian Muslims, right, yeah,
11:41
Speaker 1: in a big way. Yeah. Um. So the I guess
11:44
Speaker 1: NATO undertook that no fly zone was number two. Yeah, um,
11:48
Speaker 1: and uh that was a little more aggressive. I believe
11:52
Speaker 1: they went after they'd learned from you know, I guess
11:56
Speaker 1: about eight years of the Iraqi no fly zone that
11:59
Speaker 1: you really and I have to go after like military
12:02
Speaker 1: installations and anything that can be used to violate the
12:04
Speaker 1: no fly zone, and maybe even go a little step
12:07
Speaker 1: further as punishment, like not only is is, are we
12:12
Speaker 1: gonna shoot down your plane, We're gonna maybe blow up
12:15
Speaker 1: your base and pants you right in front of everyone. Right.
12:19
Speaker 1: So that was the second no fly zone. The third
12:22
Speaker 1: was even more aggressive, Yeah, against Kadafi just a couple
12:26
Speaker 1: of years ago, in two thousand eleven, that's right, and
12:29
Speaker 1: it lasted about six months, I believe. Yeah, it was
12:33
Speaker 1: extremely effective. Yeah. Well that's because they authorized, um quote,
12:37
Speaker 1: all necessary measures to protect the Libyan civilians. And that
12:40
Speaker 1: was uh, you know, that meant a lot of a
12:44
Speaker 1: lot of bombs being dropped, a lot of cruise missiles
12:46
Speaker 1: taking out bases on land. And this one was named
12:50
Speaker 1: by Angle. It was called Operation Odyssey Dawn. It was
12:53
Speaker 1: the result of U N Security Council Resolution nine three,
12:59
Speaker 1: which is confusing because it was carried out in two
13:01
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, that's right. But basically it said, you guys,
13:06
Speaker 1: we think Kadafi is totally not so um and he's
13:11
Speaker 1: gonna kill a lot of his own people. Go in
13:13
Speaker 1: there and declare all of Libya no fly zone. And
13:18
Speaker 1: NATO said, okay, let's do it, right, So US and
13:22
Speaker 1: British lad NATO coalition kind of took the reins and
13:27
Speaker 1: turned this six hundred and eighty thousand square mile country,
13:31
Speaker 1: which is about one point seven million square kilometers UH
13:38
Speaker 1: into a no fly zone. All of Libya was a
13:40
Speaker 1: no fly zone, all right. So since this is a
13:43
Speaker 1: new thing, it's there is no as this article says playbook,
13:47
Speaker 1: there's not like a exact way that these go into effect.
13:51
Speaker 1: It sort of depends on what you're dealing with, what
13:52
Speaker 1: countries you're dealing with. But the first thing that you
13:54
Speaker 1: have to do, according to Chapter seven, Article forty two
13:57
Speaker 1: of the UN Charter, is UH get the fifteen member
14:01
Speaker 1: UN Security Council on board, right, which sounds easy, but
14:05
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily because you have five permanent members the UK, France,
14:09
Speaker 1: the US, China and Russia. And China Russia loved to
14:12
Speaker 1: veto anything that the US, the UK, and UM, France
14:16
Speaker 1: are all about UM, which is good, it's called a
14:19
Speaker 1: balance of power. But UM specifically with Libya, France, or
14:24
Speaker 1: Russia and China, they were against it, but they were
14:28
Speaker 1: persuaded to abstain from the vote because all it takes
14:31
Speaker 1: is one one permanent member nation on the Security Council
14:34
Speaker 1: of veto and it's done. Yeah. I wonder what that
14:36
Speaker 1: persuasion entailed. I don't know. You know, looking the other
14:40
Speaker 1: way on human rights violations. Maybe I have no idea,
14:43
Speaker 1: but I'm sure it wasn't just as easy as hey,
14:44
Speaker 1: you might sitting this one out. Sure, no problem, right,
14:47
Speaker 1: I'm drunk anyway. So, UM, the the UN resolution for
14:53
Speaker 1: the Libyan uh no fly zone. UM, it's a pretty
14:57
Speaker 1: good example of how this kind of thing can work.
15:00
Speaker 1: So no flights in Libyan airspace bands all flying unless
15:04
Speaker 1: it's a humanitarian mission carrying food or water or getting
15:07
Speaker 1: out um for nationals who are in like bad places. Yeah,
15:11
Speaker 1: you're allowed to do that. Other than that, no fly,
15:14
Speaker 1: no fly, and um, it's not you don't just shoot
15:17
Speaker 1: down any plane on site when you're patrolling the no
15:21
Speaker 1: fly zone. If a if a plane is flying in
15:24
Speaker 1: Libyan airspace, you want to first figure out if it
15:26
Speaker 1: was there accidentally or if it's hostile. And if it's hostile,
15:29
Speaker 1: you go back to the ground and say, hey, man,
15:31
Speaker 1: can I shoot this thing down? Yeah? Well, first you
15:33
Speaker 1: go figure out who's who's doing the shooting. You know,
15:36
Speaker 1: you gotta set it all up. Who's gonna be enforcing
15:39
Speaker 1: all this I was just jumping ahead of Okay, you
15:41
Speaker 1: gotta figure out who's who's in charge of the operation
15:44
Speaker 1: basically in the live in the case of Libya, it
15:46
Speaker 1: was NATO. And um, then you established the rules of engagement,
15:52
Speaker 1: which is partially has to do with hey, do we
15:56
Speaker 1: shoot first and ask questions later? Do we check passports?
15:59
Speaker 1: How's this gonna work? Right? And and like you said, Olivia,
16:01
Speaker 1: it was pretty aggressive. Um. The first thing that happened
16:05
Speaker 1: on day one was the US and I believe the
16:08
Speaker 1: UK sailed warships off the coast Olibya and started shooting
16:14
Speaker 1: missiles into Libya's interior, knocking out military installations, radar installations,
16:21
Speaker 1: as much of the Libyan military is or at least
16:24
Speaker 1: air force as could be destroyed. Hundred twelve Tomahawk cruise
16:28
Speaker 1: missiles boom, Yeah, each one precisely shot. That's right. And uh,
16:33
Speaker 1: I love the article says the goal is to shape
16:35
Speaker 1: the battle space in quotes. Yeah, that's the euphemism. Huh yeah,
16:38
Speaker 1: big time. So um, after this, they send in the
16:42
Speaker 1: drone surveillance aircraft to check things out. You see what's
16:45
Speaker 1: going on? And did you get the impression the US
16:46
Speaker 1: is kind of showing off a little bit like we well,
16:49
Speaker 1: we've got some missiles we can use. And then after
16:51
Speaker 1: we're we'll send in our unmanned drones and make sure
16:55
Speaker 1: everything's bombed. And then after that we're going to send
16:58
Speaker 1: in radar jamming equipment just in case you have anything
17:01
Speaker 1: left on the ground, we'll take care of that too. Yeah,
17:05
Speaker 1: that was the first like two days. Yeah, and getafis
17:08
Speaker 1: his air force was you know, they call them vintage
17:11
Speaker 1: jets in this uh in this article, and that's in
17:14
Speaker 1: that case, vintage is not a good thing. You know,
17:17
Speaker 1: it's from the nineteen sixties. It's old gear. Basically, it's vintage,
17:20
Speaker 1: not retro um. So it's it's still it was effective.
17:25
Speaker 1: It worked even beyond the fact that, um, the jets
17:29
Speaker 1: were vintage and we crippled the his radar system, his
17:33
Speaker 1: air force, military installations. Um, there was still a lot
17:38
Speaker 1: of shoulder launched rockets in Libya and estimated six hundred.
17:44
Speaker 1: I believe that like during this time, Kadafi was handing
17:48
Speaker 1: out to people who were on his side. Yeah, and
17:50
Speaker 1: Sadam Hussein famously offered a bounty on any aircraft shotdown
17:55
Speaker 1: of like fourteen grand which I thought, why not fifteen?
17:59
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, that was a weird number. I wonder
18:01
Speaker 1: if that if that makes like a significant round number
18:04
Speaker 1: in Iraqi money. You know, it's a lot of yes,
18:10
Speaker 1: thank you. You shouldn't invest in those, by the way,
18:13
Speaker 1: that's a big scam invest in denari. You have you
18:16
Speaker 1: heard of people doing that? No, it's a thing where
18:19
Speaker 1: people buy up Iraqi denari and thinking you're like, they're
18:22
Speaker 1: gonna hit it big one day. You shouldn't do that. Why, Yeah,
18:25
Speaker 1: it's just you do a little research and it's it's
18:27
Speaker 1: sort of one of those scams, is it. Yeah, So
18:29
Speaker 1: like if you bought denari from a legitimate currency broker,
18:33
Speaker 1: it's still not a good investment. Huh. I know someone
18:36
Speaker 1: who did. Oh no, is it possible it's going to
18:40
Speaker 1: come back in ten years? A doubt it. Are they
18:43
Speaker 1: going to go euro? I don't know. Huh. But yeah,
18:46
Speaker 1: that's just a sidebar. Okay, that was a nice one.
18:48
Speaker 1: Save your money, folks. So we were talking about the
18:51
Speaker 1: possibility that a NATO jet or any jet patrolling a
18:56
Speaker 1: no fly zone could get shot down by some dude
18:58
Speaker 1: on the ground. Yeah it hasn't happened, No, but it
19:01
Speaker 1: couldn't have to be one lucky shot. It raises one
19:03
Speaker 1: of the concerns. Uh, actually it has happened. It hasn't
19:07
Speaker 1: happened from somebody on the ground, but it raises a concern,
19:10
Speaker 1: a risk that, um, we're sending in people again into
19:15
Speaker 1: a sovereign nation that maybe he has to deal with
19:18
Speaker 1: his own problems, and um, we're putting our people in
19:23
Speaker 1: danger for that. Most people, I think myself included side
19:28
Speaker 1: on the idea of going in and protecting civilians from
19:32
Speaker 1: certain slaughter. Um, but I do agree that there is
19:36
Speaker 1: a risk as well in um. Scott McGrady remember him, Yeah, Yeah,
19:41
Speaker 1: during the Balkan War. Uh, during that no fly zone
19:45
Speaker 1: he was shot down I guess by a Serbian plane.
19:49
Speaker 1: Uh it was a surface to air missile. But okay,
19:52
Speaker 1: so somebody has shot down somebody from the ground. Well
19:54
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was a person. Okay, Well
19:56
Speaker 1: he was shot down patrolling a no fly zone and
19:59
Speaker 1: h he was in very big trouble for a little while.
20:03
Speaker 1: Had he not been quite the survivalist, who knows what
20:05
Speaker 1: would have happened. Because the Serbs were hot on his
20:07
Speaker 1: trail and he spent six days evading them. Yeah, he
20:10
Speaker 1: did a really good job and hero. Yeah, he ate
20:13
Speaker 1: ants and lived on collected rainwater and avoided the bad
20:17
Speaker 1: guys and eventually got through uh A radio signal and
20:22
Speaker 1: Gene Hackman picked up Gene Haman was like, we're going
20:24
Speaker 1: to get you out of there. Yeah, uncommon Valor. Man.
20:28
Speaker 1: That was the Gene Hackman was in the Ohen Wilson
20:31
Speaker 1: movie too, Was he really? I'm pretty sure he was
20:33
Speaker 1: the one that was in charge of saving him. Oh man,
20:36
Speaker 1: well he's he's always going in and save him an
20:38
Speaker 1: uncommon Valor. It was his son who was a Yeah,
20:41
Speaker 1: Vietnam Pio w Right. That's good, Randall tex Cob Yeah,
20:46
Speaker 1: what was his name in it? I don't remember that.
20:49
Speaker 1: That movie came out at a great time for me though.
20:50
Speaker 1: It was the perfect age. He wore like a live
20:54
Speaker 1: grenade around his remember, yeah, that's the second time we
20:58
Speaker 1: talked about Uncommon Valor and like two months When was
21:01
Speaker 1: the other one? I remember? I don't remember. I remember
21:04
Speaker 1: talking about it and probably when what happens if the
21:06
Speaker 1: earth stops spinning? Yeah? Probably so. Um, so you got
21:12
Speaker 1: anything else? I guess. We had the opportunity to to
21:16
Speaker 1: really invade Libya, and in President Obama said, you know what,
21:20
Speaker 1: let's not do that. Um, let's not do the regime
21:23
Speaker 1: change game. Well, a lot of people are like, we
21:26
Speaker 1: shouldn't be there in the first place. A lot of
21:28
Speaker 1: other people are like, this is a half measure. If
21:30
Speaker 1: you're gonna go do that and just wipe out somebody's military,
21:33
Speaker 1: you might as well do a ground invasion and take
21:35
Speaker 1: over and top all the regime. Like you said. Obama
21:38
Speaker 1: was like, no, let's give it a shot. And he
21:40
Speaker 1: was proven right in Libya at least, because even if
21:42
Speaker 1: you take out their air defenses and their air offenses,
21:46
Speaker 1: I guess they still have way better weaponry and stuff
21:50
Speaker 1: on the ground than these uprising forces do. And it
21:53
Speaker 1: worked in Libya. It didn't necessarily work in the Balkans.
21:57
Speaker 1: A lot of people point to Um the slaughter at
22:01
Speaker 1: um Sribrenica. Yeah, seven thousand Muslim U boys and men
22:12
Speaker 1: were killed yea by the Bosnians being Yeah, who are
22:18
Speaker 1: being tried for war crimes because of it. But the
22:20
Speaker 1: no FLI zone didn't do anything to prison prevent it.
22:22
Speaker 1: That's right, So I mean, is it effective? It can be.
22:27
Speaker 1: I say that we don't have a large enough body
22:30
Speaker 1: of work to study from here. We need to get
22:33
Speaker 1: some more going, get some more enoughly sounds Remember how
22:36
Speaker 1: creepy it was after eleven when all the planes were
22:39
Speaker 1: shut down. Remember that. Oh yeah, it's just so odd.
22:42
Speaker 1: You don't realize how used to the sounds and the
22:45
Speaker 1: Kim trails and trail We did an episode on that
22:50
Speaker 1: Calm trails or did kim trails? We did? We did
22:53
Speaker 1: a con trails Kim Trails. Yeah, yeah, you know what
22:56
Speaker 1: I mean. Okay, I guess that's about it, right. If
22:59
Speaker 1: you want to learn more about no fly zones, you
23:01
Speaker 1: can type no fly zone into the search bart how
23:03
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Uh. And before we get the
23:06
Speaker 1: listener mail, let's do a word from our sponsor. All right,
23:09
Speaker 1: listener mail time. Yeah, okay, Josh, I'm gonna call this um.
23:14
Speaker 1: She kid gets his way, which I try not to do.
23:17
Speaker 1: But this is everybody loves it when pushy kids get there.
23:19
Speaker 1: This is a shout out for a teacher. This is
23:22
Speaker 1: Jack and Jack and I had been emailing each other
23:24
Speaker 1: and he says, by the way, Chuck, I think I
23:26
Speaker 1: told you in the past about my Civics teacher that
23:28
Speaker 1: listens to the show. This week, we have a special
23:30
Speaker 1: project in this class is to make a podcast about
23:33
Speaker 1: one of the Supreme Court cases we've been studying for
23:36
Speaker 1: some hints. We listened to tidbits of your show, and
23:38
Speaker 1: my teacher and I just grinned from ear to ear
23:40
Speaker 1: at each other like a really funny inside joke because
23:43
Speaker 1: they're like the only two in the class of listen. Um.
23:46
Speaker 1: I plan for my pseudonym to be either Chuck or
23:48
Speaker 1: even Chuckers, if he would allow, I give me a permission,
23:51
Speaker 1: sir uh. He says he sees himself as a younger
23:54
Speaker 1: version of me, which is writing, although the actual content
23:58
Speaker 1: in the show is more like this American life because
24:00
Speaker 1: we are required to have Collins Son have Collins Uh?
24:06
Speaker 1: Do they? I don't know. I don't think. I will
24:09
Speaker 1: always think to myself that I'm sitting there in your
24:12
Speaker 1: little studio. If you can give my spectacular teacher, Mr
24:16
Speaker 1: Kristof a shout out, that would be mind boggling, stupendously incredible.
24:21
Speaker 1: But I understand if you can't, Mr Kristof. Yep, Mr
24:23
Speaker 1: Kristoph civics teacher. And I said, sure, Jack, I'll do that.
24:27
Speaker 1: And then he emailed again from Washington, d C. And said,
24:31
Speaker 1: I hate to seem demanding, Chuck, but if you could
24:33
Speaker 1: also mention Mrs Kristof because I have her for math
24:37
Speaker 1: and I don't want to make her feel left out.
24:39
Speaker 1: So if it's too late, I get it. I can't complain.
24:42
Speaker 1: This might be the best day of my life after all.
24:44
Speaker 1: Have a nice long weekend. And that is Jack outside Washington,
24:48
Speaker 1: d C. And Mr and Mrs Kristof, good job listening
24:52
Speaker 1: to the show, and we thank you for using it
24:54
Speaker 1: in your classroom. Yes, thank you to the Kristof's. Mr.
24:57
Speaker 1: And Mrs Kristof's. Thank you for shaping your minds. Do
25:00
Speaker 1: you conceive that shout out? Uh? And way to go, Jack?
25:04
Speaker 1: You're cool, dude. Um, if you have a shout out
25:07
Speaker 1: you want us to give. Chuck gives in on those
25:09
Speaker 1: pretty frequently. Sometimes. You can tweek to us at s
25:13
Speaker 1: Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook
25:15
Speaker 1: dot com, uh slash Stuff you Should Know, send us
25:18
Speaker 1: an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, and
25:21
Speaker 1: go to our website Stuff you Should Know dot com.
25:31
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
25:34
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com.