Care to share how "common" they are? Care to have a guess at how many engagements a DAY there are and on the off chance this - as tragic as it is - kind of thing happens?
Quoting 747438 (Thread starter): When will the US learn to identify the enemy rather than their own side?
Ever been "in the shit"? Answer that before I proceed further . . . .
Quoting 747438 (Thread starter): It's not as if they are held accountable for their actions
Nor would a British unit, Canadian unit, etc . . . . IF it's accidental. It's war - and war sucks.
MDorBust From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1034 times:
Quoting 747438 (Thread starter): When will the US learn to identify the enemy rather than their own side?
Perhaps someone should ask the dead... since the article clearly says that the troops involved RESPONDED to incoming fire.
"En route to the location the forces were suddenly ambushed from both sides with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms and returned fire and called in air support and broke contact."
If I can barely identify the face of a friend at 100 ft, I can imagine how hard it actually is to identify an enemy at longer distances, especially in the heat of battle.
As I have mentioned before, when someone is shooting at you, trying to kill you, you don't spend much time identifying your potential killers. You shoot first, then ask questions later.
Charlienorth From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 1077 posts, RR: 5 Reply 4, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1030 times:
Never been in combat..but I can just imagine the chaos,,if we could go back lets just say to the Civil War (U.S.) and investigate, it would probably be quite shocking to see how many "friendly fire" casualties there have been..give these guys a break.
Rlwynn From Germany, joined Dec 2000, 989 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1030 times:
This type of accident has and will happen in every war.There is just no way around it. When people feel they are about to die they will pull the trigger every time.
Greasespot From Canada, joined Apr 2004, 3050 posts, RR: 22 Reply 8, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 960 times:
It is a war...sometimes in a war there are tragic accidents.....This is one of them...
It is real easy to sit back and judge.. when you are not the ones being shot at...Split second decisions have to be made and when they are you hope that they are the right ones...
Tomorrow my partner could shoot me in an exchange of gunfire....no one would vilify him....They would feel sad for him...We should have the same compassion for the soldiers who are involved in someting like this...They will have to fore ever live with the knowledge that they killed a brother..
GS
[Edited 2007-06-13 06:03:29]
Sometimes all you can do is look them in the eye and ask " how much did your mom drink when she was pregnant with you?"
PacificWest From United States of America, joined May 2007, 77 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 948 times:
Quoting 747438 (Thread starter): When will the US learn to identify the enemy rather than their own side?
These incidents are becoming far too common.
It's not as if they are held accountable for their actions
Translation: Americans are a bunch of rogue idiots...
Itsjustme From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 2765 posts, RR: 11 Reply 10, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 930 times:
Hey Einstein, did you bother to read the article you quoted? U.S. forces were fired on and they returned fire. Had the Afghan officers been more accurate with their weapons, we'd be talking about some dead Americans right now. Would you be as quick to condemn the actions of the Afghans had the fatalities been American? How nice things must look through those rose colored glasses you're obviously wearing. This was an extremely tragic accident. Your attempt to spin it into anything else is shameful.
L-188 From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 29350 posts, RR: 62 Reply 11, posted (5 years 11 months 1 week 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 923 times:
Quoting AndesSMF (Reply 3): Was it not upwards of 20% of those killed?
It was something pretty high.
Our guys in Europe didn't do themselves any favors when they started to fix abandoned german vehicles to supplement their own truck fleets.
I remember reading a book about a combat engineer unit, who's commander woke up one day and realized that a couple months after D-day fully 1/3rd of his units trucks were repaired Opel Blitzs.
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