When are the American Army going to learn WHO to shoot??!!!!?

TOBY D

Unfortunately, I don't think it will ever happen, they have a hugely different approach to the job they are doing. Whenever you see footage or interviews with american soldiers, pilots etc. they are always really pumped up, and going on about opening up cans of whoop ***, and giving the rag heads a beating, whereas whenever you see the same of british soldiers the whole ethos is different. British soldiers seem to be a lot more calm and considered, they know they have a job to do, and are damn tough, but they seem less carried away in the moment, and seem a lot more calculating in everything that they do.

Without a doubt, man for man, the British army is the best in the world, I just wish the yanks took more notice of how things should be done.

NSA

"The British, too, had friendly-fire incidents. In one case, two British tank crewmen died after a fellow Challenger II tank fired on them west of Basra"

"Two Danish soldiers from The Royal Life Guards were killed by British Javelin anti-tank missiles during combat operations in the Helmand province, Afghanistan."

That is the short list. The UK is equally incompetent. And it is Not always the Americans.

sfctranspo

Look at you source.The Sun!! Come on man!!
Although fratricide has been going on ever since the beginning of war. But, you already knew that since you already know everything.

Beastie

US pilots have extended the 'fire and forget' concept of certain weapons. They've made altered it to read 'forget who you're firing at.'

It's almost safer to be on the other side than an ally.

They are notoriously bad at target identification. Remember the A10 tankbusters in Iraq that blew up a column of British soldiers? They actually convinced themselves that the bright orange chevron markings on the roofs of the APC's were some type of missile launcher!! And this was in open land, with no enemy presence nearby, so any comments about friendly fire in a combat situation are misinformed rubbish.

And for the guy who said you helped out Europe in WW2... well, yes, you did. Well done.
It was over sixty years ago, how long do you honestly expect Europe to be grateful for the help? That would be the help it took the UK fifty-seven years to pay off.

Oh put your toys away, manitou. Not everyone in Britain hates Americans, I've only got what's called a mild dislike having served in a unit attached to one of your gung ho mob in Iraq. This mob took ignorance to a new level, and didn't look at the big picture other than to go 'look, that's where I am.' Shoot first, ask questions eventually.
The Germans would never have invaded Britain, having tried and failed, so you can put your 'people in prison camps' crap away. I've heard about Operation Sea Lion. You clearly haven't.
Hey, and remember, it wasn't just Americans who died. One of my uncle's got seriously injured in 1940, and the rest of his platoon got killed. When did your lot show up again?

I don't know where you're hanging out if you're constantly getting abuse from BNP members. There's none of those irrelevant little scumbags around here.

Geoff C

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3070875.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,922141,00.html

British Royal Marine Christopher Maddison killed when his river patrol boat was hit by missiles after being wrongly identified as an enemy vessel approaching a Royal Engineers checkpoint on the Al-Faw Peninsula, Iraq

Two Danish soldiers from The Royal Life Guards were killed by British Javelin anti-tank missiles during combat operations in the Helmand province, Afghanistan.[21]

When you take into acount the amount of troops from each side and the amount of actual times they each fire the % is not too far off.

If I shoot my weapon 10000 times more than someone else the chance of something going wrong is greater that a person who fires theirs 10 times.

Also many times friendly fire incidents are automatically blamed on the person dropping the bomb. Many times it is proven that the wrong corodinates are given.

The one inccident a british tank fired on another british tank he didnt even have to figure out if it was a cololition tank it looked just like the one he was in.

The person who posted the question obviously has never been in a war. Probably gets flustered by picking out his toilet paper just think what making a decision is like when bullets are being fired at you

gav552001

For your informations it is not always the americans that are the instigators of blue on blue or " friendly fire", there are many other cases where allies have fired on each other. one of the reasons that the American incidents are highlighted or seem to be more common is that there are usually treble the amount of Americans serving in a theatre compared to other Allied forces. People (usually that have never been in combat unlike some of us) have no idea what that situation is, dont forget any conflict/war is a total breakdown of what people consider "civilised" in many cases it is kill or be killed. I have in the past served in operations with many different US units and yes they do have thier faults but then so does any unit, nobody is perfect and in a firefight situation chaos and confusion can be the norm.
Please dont think i am anti US i am not but it is extremely irritating when the Americans constantly refer to winning WWII, you didnt do it on your own it was an allied victory, yes you where a major contributor in personnel and materiels but please remember we (the uk and commonwealth nations) had been fighting since 1939, we had repulsed the German invasion (operation sealion) by defeating the German ir force in the battle of britain (in which there where some American volunteers fighting) we appreciated the Lend lease programme and the help that Roosevelt gave us at that time until that terrible day 7th Dec 1941 when that cowardly attack was carried out but we are not keen on some of the comments that are made about that period, also to the comment about British flying close air support please note the article said there was one Amercian helicopter and one british one there, so to say we dont participate in close air support is completly wrong

cheechalini

Maybe if the Brits were taught how to properly ID themselves, they would escape this fate. I've served with a few. There do you get these guys from?

katjha2005

Funny how it's only on the "Sun".... which is great real news as always.. I looked up the guy's name and only saw 3 articles on it.. both with links to the "Sun".... do you always believe everything you read

A Dull Man

Historically, the American Army knows who to shoot, but sometimes they miss..

MikeGolf

Anybody notice how the British are so quick to criticize us when we make the occasional mistake when performing a battlefield task so difficult (close air support) that the British armed forces won't even to it themselves?

Maybe the British should start flying their own close air support missions?

erehwon

I just love the criticism from the monday morning armchair soldiers whose only combat experiences come from video games and Hollywood. While friendly fire is unfortunate, it is a reality of war...and it does not just apply to Americans. It just makes a great story sells papers when the Americans are involved.

I guess here is proof that not just Americans need to learn....shocking...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3070875.ece

Hezel S

When are the injustice nations learn to never to THREATEN the america??!

gue o

If they were on a tank they have thic coded signal being sent to another tank FOF (Friend or Foe) signals to identify and to prevent friendly fire.

CLIVE H

In the battle zone, anyone in front of my rifle gets shot.

Old soldier.

At the Battle of Waterloo, Wellinton demanded of the Imperial Guard, "do you surrender"? "No" came the reply. Wellington ordered the Foot Guard to open fire. Every surviving member of Napoleon's Imperial Guard was shot dead.

It's war, just get used to it.

yabadabadoo

your all jealous of the british if you yanks wernt so insecure you wouldnt need to be such load mouths and you helped in ww2 to earn massive profit from us

HIGHLANDER

sounds like none of you so called experts have ever been
shot at. much less have had someone really want to kill you.
how do you tell the difference when if they have a rifle they're
the enemy then when they put it down they're now innocent
civilians. if you think its s easy to tell the difference stick your
head out get it shot at and see only civilians who by the way
didn't see anything. try it, then see if what you write here has
changed a bit.

john s

i think your being unfair the americans baled europe out in world war 2 just a shame it took them two years to realise it started

Mongolian Village Cook

Let's not forget the number of Canadian soldiers killed by American friendly fire (actually, a bomb) in Afghanistan. For those of you criticizing the Sun as a source, let me say this: the American television media does not cover world news like the rest of the world does.

When the Canadians were killed, only one or two American news segments even showed that it had happened, and gave it a good minute or two of actual news time.

Does that mean it didn't happen?

Marky

In World War II, when the English shot, the Germans ducked....when the Germans shot, the English ducked...when the Americans shot, everyone ducked!

EDIT: Those noticing all the thumbs down be aggrieved yanks - they're trying to give us thumbs up but keep missing!!

spook542

And just like all the other incidents with trigger happy yanks when there's an enquiry it'll be found that there's no case to answer.

Yo it's Me

Yes, it's been going on forever, even in the Wars where we saved Europe's butt. If Britain had any sort of an Army, you might realize this (** see note below), people get killed in war. In fact during the early 80's in the peace-time U.S. military, about as many were were killed in training accidents as have been killed in Iraq.

During WWII Sen. McCain's father was strafed just before the invasion of North Africa, about 100 U.S. soldiers were killed by friendly fire, during the invasion of Sicily, the list goes on and on, here's a good one:

Lieutenant General McNair (3 star general), who had already received a Purple Heart for being wounded in the North African Campaign, was killed July 25, 1944 near St. Lo during Operation Cobra, by friendly fire during a pre-attack bombardment by the Eighth Air Force.

** Note: General George Scratchley Brown put it best back in the early 70's. "Brown was known for the directness of his speech, which sometimes offended those around him. Asked once to comment on his opinion of the British armed forces, Brown replied, 'The British? All they have are generals, admirals and bands.' "

Kevan M

The American Army cannot shoot straight, shoot at anything that moves, if it does not move, shoot it until it does. The best idea of the American Trooper still comes from the Vietnam war where they where besiging some temple / palace, a regiment was called in and they used thousands of rounds of ammo blasting the place by plcing their guns above their heads pulling the trigger and waving the guns around. When they finally finished, they went in and found loads of lovely bullet holes, broken walls and general devestation, but only found a handful of bodies, all the insurgents and civilians in the complex had fled within minutes of them arriving.
As for their airforce, during the 1st and 2nd world war they where constantly attacking there own troops, ships, and convoys, would attack anything without checking, then after those wars, looks at Vietnam again, even when they could not identify any targets they would just shoot or drop ordance indiscriminantly into the feilds and Jungle without any idea what was beneath them.
NEVER give an American a gun, they seem to get that look in their eyes...... Go to a large sports shop in the US and have the shock of looking at the rows of Ammo and wepons on general sale.