Are American "Friendly Fire" incidences really mistakes?

malasharrock

I think you will always get some trigger happy person who will shoot first and ask questions later, the military attracts that sort of person. But I think the majority of incidents are either they are poorly trained or they are very stressed and nervous so they are more prone to make mistakes.

maddogcrog

you have no respect for the Serviceman of any war! do you realize historically the amount of people killed in friendly fire and war games themselves!!! War is not pretty... war is war! but you have your freedom to be so Ignorant because someone died defending your freedom!

ldyblucpl

To the people that say our troops are trigger happy. People are trying to KILL them using the most devious methods. This is a WAR. Innocent people will get killed. Let someone try to kill you for a while and see how much "restraint" you show when something happens. I also do not put it past our ENEMY to plant false info so these things happen. We should have learned on Sept 11 that we are not dealing with stupid people here. They have done thier research and know how we ( our government and our people) will react to certain things. What about the hundreds of cases the Media doesn't report about all the great things our troops are doing? Like giving free medical care, food, water, etc. Troops sending back home for sports equipment and education stuff for the kids. We should give the ground troops a really wide berth here. Its the top brass and government people that scare me.

John A

I think that if you fire more bullets, a greater percentage will hit the wrong target. If your armaments have greater destructive power, the effect of the mistake will be greater. I am astounded that there has not been a major nuclear mishap in the past 60 years.....or who knows, maybe there has ?

Your #1 fan

No and why do they call it friendly when your own countrymen are shooting at you?

donktheclown

Nooooooooooo...., it's intentional.

Caffeine Fiend

I think they ARE mistaks - why would they do it on purpose? What do they get for doing so, or achieve? Surely the backlash is they face court marshell, not to mention a reputation for being amateurish - But I think for the most part they were avoidable mistakes.

Spanglish McWhirter

Well, er, I don't think it's some kind of massive conspiracy if that's what you mean...

james c

We hope they were mistakes!!!!!!

Honee-Bee93

Ask this Question? after you've been on the front lines yourself. Are you an American asking if we are killing our own people on purpose? TSK TSK TSK!

mckenziecalhoun

It helps every once in a while to repeat, for our younger or less experienced citizens, to tell them what the nature of news is:

News is about the strange, the unusual, the weird.

There are no news stories about murders in the ghetto unless very unusual.

There are no news stories about crimes committed by felons who are released, unless they are weird.

There are no news stories about the wonderful things priests, military men/women, police officers, firemen, and politicians do every day, unless very strange.

The news is not about the normal, but every day people buy into it as if it is reality.

Oh, the stories are usually true, though sometimes biased one way or another, but the whole of the news is FAR from a reflection of reality. You are seeing the strange, the weird, the rare, and then compiling an image of reality based on it.

Don't go that way. Only the madness of the conspiracy theorist lies in that direction.

The cure is simple. If you really want to ask these question (it is not unpatriotic to do so. It is only unpatriotic to treat our representatives as "guilty until proved innocent").

The list is not endless, it is very short. Do three things to regain your perspective: 1) look at the actual statistics, not rare exceptions. One can prove anything with exceptions;
2) Compare with other wars, other countries; research in isolation is NOT research, just careless.
3) Talk deliberately to people who disagree with you. If you surround yourself with people who only think the way you do, you surround yourself with you. Reality is a whole lot bigger than you. Imagine the millions of people you really wish would follow that advice. I do. Be happy to consider you one of them, if open to it.

I had two parents in government. A lot of these conspiracy stories were fodder for the dinner table, and I quickly learned to see through them, as well as understand some of the deeper things that really do happen. Ask me about the Suez Canal sometime.

chloe_saiana

as much as a mistake can be from the actions of selecting a target and firing.
friendly fire is when 2 soldiers run into a room from different places and mistake each other for the enemy, not a surface to air missile with tracking systems etc.

why don't we hear about how many Iraqi's or Afghan's have died? I don't mean to diminish our soldiers that have died over there, but our casualties are pretty minor in comparison

Top Cat

yes also known as casualties of war; these people get blind sighted in their job, as I doubt any person would purpously kill an innocent person

â™¥haggisbasherâ™¥

They are supposed to be highly skilled, how can it be possible to make so many mistakes, I think it is their motto to shoot first ask questions later or if it moves shoot it!!

intelligent_observer

"Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence - Napoleon Bonaparte"

jeeper_peeper321

Well actually the UK Tornado wasn't flying with US planes.

It was flying alone, with a faulty IFF transponder that wasn't working.

More British soldiers have been killed by friendly fire from British soldiers in Iraq than by Americans.

And there are plenty of cases of British forces accidently firing on the media.

During the Falklands war:

SBS and the SAS accidently got into a fire fight with each other, killing one SBS trooper.

HMS Cardiff shoots down AAC Gazelle (UK)

3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, British Army (UK) Companies A and C engage each other in an hour-long firefight in the Falkland Islands involving heavy weapons and artillery strikes. At least 8 UK casualties

It's not an American only issue.

Daniel-san, or Glinda (dont ask!)

Let's ask Pat Tillman's family!

oldhag

Yes, I believe they are because our servicemen and women aren't given enough time to train properly.

Severance

When you're in an hostile theatre of war (and pray you arm chair warriors don't find yourselves there) nothing is clear. The enemy doesn't glow red with a target on his/her chest, every rock you pass may have an IED behind it, every person that walks in front of you is a potential threat, every vehicle that comes near you is just as likely to blow up than to pass you by. Live with that for 6 to 12 months and you'll soon get jittery. No member of the armed forces wants to kill innocents or his/her allies but the fact remains; it happens. Conflict is not like you play on your PC, so thank your lucky stars that there are people willing to take the burden for you so you don't have to experience it first hand.

To jason; Who speaks for the Servicemen? Just putting my point of view forward as is my right I believe. I see you felt the need to shout, just as well you're not armed eh? Self restraint........

The Big Cheese

No mistake these guys are trigger happy!!

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