How could it have happened?

Question

I for one remain shocked over the death of the 4 UN observers, one of them being a Finn. Aparantly, they had repeatedly asked for the artillery bombarbment to cease, as their bunker was being hit, and when at last Israel agreed, the airforce bombed them having gotten faulty commands?

I was educated to be a Forward-Observing Officer in the Finnish national service, and I cannot see how there was a possibility to such a momentous mistake. The troops on ground, would've had the UN bunker marked on their map, they would've seen where the shells were landing in order to correct the fire accordingly... What went wrong? Did they have the map upside down??
The reason given that they were firing at the general area was that it was teeming with terrorist activity... Yet, even artillery shells should be accurate enough not to hit the bunker... Perhaps their equipment was too "Hi-tech" to be effective.

Unless the terrorists were firing rockets right on top of the bunker, there still is no excuse. Besides, wasn't Israel equipped with all sorts of american precision missiles and rockets?

Even a forward observer who uses his fingers and the sun for direction, his hands to measure distance and pen and paper to calculate coordinates would be accurate enough not to hit a bunker repeatedly. (It's actually possible to do so)

Answer 1

Hez continually fired rockets from near that location...using the UN as human shields.

Answer 2

When my dad was in the military, during a war game, the artillery bombed "tent city" with live shells killing 14 people and wounding others.

During the invasion of Grenada, the U.S. military had to use tourist maps. During the bombing of Libya, the U.S. bombed the Chinese embassy because they were using an outdated map. A U.S. fighter jet also ripped the wires off a gondola in Europe, because the gondola wasn't on their map.

They also probably were not using a forward observer. The Israelis were complaining that Hezbollah was firing rockets and mortars next to civilian and UN outposts. The Israelis were probably watching the firing from a radar and shot at where the firing was happening. The UN wasn't much use to have Hezbollah firing from right next to a UN outpost.

Answer 3

If you have ever been in battle you will know of a phrase called the "fog of war" and quite simply during a real battle, rather than an exercise communications are misheard. things are mis-identified, and everything gets confused.

There ceases to be anything like an instant order and there can be several minutes between realising a mistake and actually being able to do anything about it.

In the first gulf war one U.S tank regiment spent the entire night fighting itself whilst it was advancing....tank on tank. Gunners were certain that they were hitting T55's when in fact they were lighting each other up.

No-one, not even the israelis are stupid enough to deliberately target the U.N.

Answer 4

Israel will come up with some excuse that will be "accepted" by the UN.

It's the same thing that happened to the four Canadian troops killed by their American counterparts in Afghanistan (yet again!). They call it "friendly fire". I call it murder. These people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "Mistakes" should not ever happen if the soldiers manning the equipment have the proper training. If it was a case of emotions getting away from them (as the first murders of Canadian soldiers by Americans were judged), then they should be charged with manslaughter and do time in prison. And their commanding officers should be somewhat liable as well, because those people with bad judgement should not have been in control of that equipment to begin with.

Answer 5

Why are you asking the wrong question?
Who should be held accountable is the question.
Mindless bureaucracy is to blame, and if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem!

Answer 6

They said they had the wrong map of the area

Answer 7

Or perhaps they were just mad at the UN weenies.