Friendly Fire...

[daviejones]

Yet again, our finest are being killed by American bombs....

I am sooo p*ssed!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6962071.stm

[Cooperinliverp00l]

maybe it's just me on this one but aren't both american and british soldiers out there in some sort of uniform e.g combats, helmet, webbing e.t.c. Aren't the taliban / enemy wearing normal cloths, no helmets, maybe sandals cause of the desert like conditions.

How hard can it be to tell the difference. I wonder why they have never won one of those spot the difference competions in the paper.

I think George bush should sent a personal hand written by himself letter to the families of all british soldiers who have lost their lives in friendly fire and say how sorry he is and what he is going to do about it.

R.I.P

[ElectricChair]

maybe it's just me on this one but aren't both american and british soldiers out there in some sort of uniform e.g combats, helmet, webbing e.t.c. Aren't the taliban / enemy wearing normal cloths, no helmets, maybe sandals cause of the desert like conditions.

How hard can it be to tell the difference. I wonder why they have never won one of those spot the difference competions in the paper.

I think George bush should sent a personal hand written by himself letter to the families of all british soldiers who have lost their lives in friendly fire and say how sorry he is and what he is going to do about it.

R.I.P

In this case a bomb was dropped.

[Board Game Geek]

I thought the bombs were supposed to be "smart bombs" ?

Ah...ofc....programmed by Yanks....that explains it all :-)

[Spartacus]

I thought the bombs were supposed to be "smart bombs" ?

Ah...ofc....programmed by Yanks....that explains it all :-)

The software was probably coded by the same guys that programmed the Mars probe that smacked into the surface as it mixed imperial and metric measurements freely without conversion.

[zathras]

maybe it's just me on this one but aren't both american and british soldiers out there in some sort of uniform e.g combats, helmet, webbing e.t.c. Aren't the taliban / enemy wearing normal cloths, no helmets, maybe sandals cause of the desert like conditions.

How hard can it be to tell the difference. I wonder why they have never won one of those spot the difference competions in the paper.

I think George bush should sent a personal hand written by himself letter to the families of all british soldiers who have lost their lives in friendly fire and say how sorry he is and what he is going to do about it.

R.I.P

I think the difference here is that the British have copious training so they can tell the difference and the Americans, hankering after a hollywood career, go blasting in guns blazing doing a bad John Wayne impersonation followed very quickly with the words 'Oh Sh*t!'

[Mailman]

Sad but nothing more...such is war.

And of course Z, Im assuming you saw that on some movie?

Mailman

[Old Greg]

I think the difference here is that the British have copious training so they can tell the difference and the Americans, hankering after a hollywood career, go blasting in guns blazing doing a bad John Wayne impersonation followed very quickly with the words 'Oh Sh*t!'

I thought that the Americans are overstretched and having to resort to amphetamine pills, which increases the risk of error. I believe that may have been a factor in a previous incident. Makes you wonder how often the wrong target gets hit but it's barely in the news cos it's only some Johnny foreigner civilian.

[zathras]

Sad but nothing more...such is war.

And of course Z, Im assuming you saw that on some movie?

Mailman

Actually No. American soldiers (or actually pilots) caused our entire battlefield losses during the war to liberate Kuwait back in 1991. They did this when an A10 tank buster saw a column of tanks and vehicles but missed the ruddy great flag on the top of the them.

They also have a reputation for poor discipline. When I did a stint with the TAVR the Corporal who did my training told us of the time he did some training with Americans and found them to be ill disciplined. The US military has a reputation for being the most technically advanced force in the world, but one with no discipline. The British on the other hand have no technology but are exceptionally disciplined.

The 'Oh Sh*t' reference was to a previous friendly fire when pilots swore once they realised that they had killed British Troops because they are too ready to fire first and check it out later.

[Jog On]

One for the conspiracy theorists here but do you think this is connected to the yanks complaining that we’re letting them down in Basra yesterday………

I wonder how they would react and what they would do if we did it to them?