That is another thread in itself...
"American pilots are rubbish!" Discuss...
We have our share of muppets, sure. I wouldn't want to stand behind the performance of these two unfortunates flying the Colgan Q400; not even their boss was willing to do that!
I think we need to focus on the system and not single out individual pilot ability, otherwise we end up cherry-picking this or that horrible example of poor airmanship from across the world as if to show that low ability is a wide-spread problem, which it is! If we can find ways to:
A. Produce pilots of better ability.
and,
B. Find ways to de-select pilots of poor ability before a crash does that first.
then I think we will have used this tragedy to advance safety. I think we can all see that economics make this an uphill fight; I don't see the regulators having some sudden change of heart that improves both the pilot pool and the way they are treated. The system is very resistant to change.