so what do you think of the so called friendly fire on british squaddies?

Question

it is not the first time hopefully the last

Answer 1

In many wars this tragedy has happened. During the invasion of Sicily a Royal Navy destroyer shot down RAF aircraft flying in their support from Malta.

Sometimes Blue on Blue incidents become full on fire fights, this is when the 'fog of war' is total, and mainly in the mind of those in the event.

In conflict zones the guys are set up to hunt and kill, very powerful and basic human emotions. Friend or Foe indication systems are set up to try to prevent these incidents but the 'human' element will always remain the critical and sometimes fatal element.

Answer 2

It's terrible. A tragedy for the families involved. The "fog of war" causes these types of mistakes. Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire.

Making no judgments on the war, and trying not to sound too jaded, this stuff happens in every war. Hopefully something can be learned from this incident to reduce the chances of this happening again. This did happen in 2003 in the initial part of the war when Saddam's army was still intact.

But again, very sad.

Answer 3

It is a terrible event, for both British and Americans. The pilots did not believe there to be any friendlies in the area in which they were operating, so they contacted their flight controller to confirm, after they got the ok order they opened fire, only after they opened fire did they discover that the convoy beneath them were not hostiles but friendlies. This isn't because they are "trigger happy reservists," nothing could be farther from the truth and you who said that are disgusting example of humanity. They followed the rules of engagement, and an accident occurs, its a tragedy, but an accident. This was not reckless behavior, merely a tragic accident.

Answer 4

where does the term friendly fire come from there's nothing friendly about it.

after the pilots opened fire they were heard to say "we are going to jail" they knew they had made a terrible mistake. had they been a little better trained they may have acted with a little bit more thought and caution. this was pilot error and not a mistake pushing the button was a deliberate action that was carried out wilfully and recklessly only to find out after they had not identified there targets correctly.

America must not hide from this or the multiple other incidents that have occurred against British troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan

Answer 5

I'm an ex squaddie and to be honest there is no such thing as accidental fire as we are always told.The fact is its the Yanks again the gung ho boys of the worlds armys who seem to shoot at everything just incase it may be an enemy.Do you hear of British soldiers accidently blowing up an American convoy NO! The fact is for all the technology and firepower of the American army the don't seem to be able to train them to do anything other than press the fire button.Time after time this has happened and until the Yanks train a decent soldier it will continue to happen.

Answer 6

It is not the first time and it will unfortunately not be the last. Friendly fire is an unfortunate fact of life in war. The best coarse of action would be to find out why it happened and learn from it. Instead I am afraid that a political scapegoat will be found and it will not help the next group of soldiers.

Answer 7

The US troops shoot the sh!+ out of anything that moves as they are one of the most technology reliant, well armed yet HIGHLY undertrained & underpaid armies in the western world.

I wouldn't trust them with a $10 toaster...nevermind the lives of fellow humans.

Numerous examples. eg. Several APC's travelling TOWARDS the Iraqi border with a big F-off orange marker (UK Troops) on the roof - blown sky high in several repeat runs. Canadian troops blown to sh!+ in a similar instance.

Also a UK TV News convoy...escorted by White UN landrovers - blown to F*** (again several runs)

And NEVER, EVER an apology issued.

I DO NOT blame the ground troops...give a nervous soldier a weapon & he's gonna fire it at ANY possible threat - real or not. But sheesh! Are your pilots BLIND!!

Answer 8

in the first gulf war more British soldiers were killed by Americans than the enemy . it just shows why the Americans keep messing things up all over the world . think about it have the yanks ever won a war with out the British?

Answer 9

You are so right , its not the first time , in the Desert Storm thing more British soldiers were killed with friendly fire than by the enemy.
Give an American a gun and he just has to shoot something .
In the invasion of Grenada 99% of the casualties were by friendly fire .
They are so hyped up and looking for a fight its not surprising that friends get shot too .

Answer 10

I think that the British are whipping up anti-American hysteria to avoid answering the question of how come they told the US pilot that no friendlies were in the area.

Considering that this exact same thing happened in the Gulf war - until the British either learn how to track the locations of their troops or learn how to accurately report those positions to their allies, this will happen again, and again, and again.