Stay home today. Negotiating the release of the US crew I understand. It's simply astounding to me that the certified factual account of what happened in the skies near China is being decided rather than determined . When a plane crash happens in the US, the NTSB and in many cases the FBI spend between three months and three years gathering and examining the evidence, getting accounts from eyewitnesses, mechanics, crew, examining communications, flight recorders, and computer simulations in order to find the truth. In this case the truth doesn't seem to matter.
China puts a widow and a surviving pilot on the air and a country demands an apology.
The US, on the other hand, only just today got to talk to the crew without Chinese present, they haven't been permitted anywhere near the plane, and the two words black box haven't been mentioned in any of the near hundred news reports I've seen and heard. On the other hand, I don't trust Bush's capabilities as a diplomat, and so I'm relieved that he's playing the safest road possible. Maybe it's just media training, but I keep checking news sites for breaking information. The big thing though is how much this resembles Orwell's '1984'. There are three countries, and as one of them 'we' are either aligned with one or the other.