Part 2: Why is punishment for a death by "Friendly Fire" deemed separate from similar incidents...?

Question

for instance, if a friend shoots you accidentally and you die, said friend MUST stand trial and usually does a stretch of jail time.
In the same situation, within the armed services, why should they be exempt from the same punishment?

Life lost is still life lost, either way.

Answer 1

In normal civilian incidents, unless you're talking about children, there's no such thing as a firearms accident, it's carelessness that leads to such occurances in most cases.

But a lot of time in the field of battle it's chaotic and such things are bound to happen. It has been so very common throughout history. It's not uncommon for 10-20% of the casualties in a conflict to be victims of friendly fire.

But it should still obviously be investigated and the circumstances considered. When that American pilot dropped a bomb and killed 5 Canadian soldiers training in Afghanistan, he acted in breach of standard procedure and was charged for that. He didn't receive any real punishment though, forced to retire or something like that. the US Army rarely if ever punishes it's troops for such things. There's this new thing where a convoy in Afghanistan was hit by a bomber and the troops started firing wildly and random into the crowds around the street and killed something like twenty innocent people. Instances like these aren't the same as friendly fire in Vietnam for example. It's shaky troops who don't respect the rules of engagement and furthermore pretty well know that their actions won't be punished.

If, in instances like these, it is still determined that recklessness was the cause of the death, and it could easily have been prevented, the punishment should be severe. But accountability is minimal in the military. They released a survey recently and only something like 45% of soldiers said they would report a fellow troop for killing a civilian, something like that. The brotherhood is strong to the point that these guys can do whatever they want and nobody would dream of making them face consequences.

I think that is a huge problem. Collateral damage is just something accepted now by the armed forces. And it's only perpetuated by those in charge who won't address it.

Answer 2

Friendly fire, is not the same as an accidental shooting.

If a soldier was on base and accidentally fired his weapon and killed another soldier.

That's not friendly fire.

Then appropriate action would be taken.

.
Friendly fire is the accidental killing of a friendly soldier during combat action.

Usually it involves darkness, or units not knowing where all friendly units are located.

This happens when units are in movement and when two different units are moving near each other.

A unit might be told, there are no friendly units north of this location, so anyone they see firing a weapon , north of that location would be seen as an enemy.

You can not always visually indentify whether someone is in an American uniform or not, for reasons of darkness, haze, smoke, distance.

Answer 3

The military recognizes that during the "fog of war" friendly soldiers can easily be mistaken for the enemy. A soldier that accidental shoots and kills another soldier say in the barracks is guilty of negligence, e.g. did not safely clear the weapon, pointed it at another soldier, etc.
In war things happen fast and the decisions between life and death are at the blink of an eye.
General "Stonewall" Jackson was a victim of friendly fire at Chancellorsville. None of the soldiers involved were punished because they recognized it was an unfortunate part of the fog of war.

Answer 4

Rarely do people serve time for accidental shooting anyone.
They only serve time if they were reckless in their behavior i.e. using illegal gun or playing around or using drugs at time.
We have had several accidental shootings in my state & only one person went to jail - he had used a gun he took from his Dad's room. Vice President Cheney did not go to jial - nothing political just an accident.

In war times, people are shooting, yelling & moving around thus sometimes someone accidently moves into the line of fire of another soldier. Just an accident, sad but just an accident - this has happened since the beginning of wars.

Answer 5

And, behold, one got here and stated unto him, sturdy grasp, what sturdy factor shall I do, that i ought to have eternal existence? Matthew 19:sixteen And those shall pass away into eternal punishment: however the righteous into existence eternal. Matthew 25:40 six That whosoever believeth in him shouldn't perish, yet have eternal existence. John 3:15 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal existence; and that i'll improve him up on the final day. John 6:fifty 4 He that loveth his existence shall lose it; and he that hateth his existence in this worldwide shall save it unto existence eternal. John 12:25 For the wages of sin is dying; however the present of God is eternal existence by way of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Romans 6:23 And that's the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal existence , I John 2:25 Then stated the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and solid him into outer darkness; there'll be weeping and gnashing of tooth. Matthew 22:13 And, behold, I come immediately; and my reward is with me, to offer each and every guy in accordance as his paintings would be. Revelation 22:12

Answer 6

You must remember, that War is total Chaos, loud and smokey. Friendly fire is not always controllable. War is not nice and people die, either from the enemy or by mistake, No less meaning to the loss, just the circumstances, which are not always what we would like them to be

Answer 7

Accidental shootings are just accidents. As long as you're taking every reasonable precaution, that is. 'Every reasonable precaution' in a war zone just isn't nearly as safe as 'every reasonable precaution' at a shooting range.