What do you think about issues regarding Friendly Fire?

Question

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7505464.stm

Answer 1

It always seems to be that the Americans are doing the firing and their allies are the ones who are getting killed or injured and never the other way round

Answer 2

It's quite hard to believe that any combat force would intentionally shoot at their allies.  In many cases there is a reasonable explanation, poor radio communication, improper co-ordinates for air strike, faulty intellegence.  All forces have at one time or another shot at their own by accident.  It just seems that the Yanks do it a shade more often, or maybe it's just reported more when they do it.  My cousin and his unit in Canadian armed forces were pinned down by a British unit.  It just so happened that they were heading in the same direction, but the last radio communication they had said the Canadian unit was behind them, they had stopped to rest and my cousins unit got to the village before them, when the Brits showed up, they saw troops digging in and thought they were Taliban, a fire fight ensued, my cousin said it 20 minutes of radio conversation to be sure that they were shooting at each other and not the enemy.  Luckily no-one was injured.  Simple mis communication.

I don't actually think anyone can judge until you have been in a combat zone and shot at daily.  It must give you a heightened sense of kill or be killed, and I'm sure mistakes can easily be made, when under that kind of stress.

Answer 3

This kind of thing happens once in a while but don't let the Brits fool you Americans are not the only ones that do this kind of thing.

Answer 4

What's "friendly" about it?

Sadly it seems that when we are involved in operations with other countries (NATO, UN etc) that US forces are most frequently guilty of this.

A friend in the British military told me that his units in Iraq would NEVER go forward with US troops behind them, too big a chance of being shot up in error. The Americans were seen as trigger happy, excessively gung-ho and too ready to fire full auto at anything that moved, as he said to me "They think this is Dodge City and they're Wyatt Earp"

Answer 5

I think the military commanders overseeing the assault should be shot for negligence.

That is what it is - negligence.

With all the technology used by our forces (and American forces) there is no need for this to happen.

Answer 6

The reality and horrors on what went wrong out there without being aware of it being expose in time.

Was just  accidental.

On what can happen in the air.

Luke 8.5-8,10-17

What do you think?

Answer 7

I think the article covered much of what is to be discussed.  Friendly fire and accidents during war time operations always seem to be more heart wrenching and devastating than combat deaths caused by the enemy.  Like the movie "Courage Under Fire" pointed out covering up how a person dies is unforgivable,  the families should know exactly, if possible, how their love one died. And the incident needs to be examined carefully to prevent future occurrences.

Answer 8

Sometimes friendly fire is just that an accident, other times someone may not like you. Vietnam Veteran

Answer 9

There are friendly fire issues in every war. They just happen.