"Friendly Fire" Inquest

[hagbard_celine]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6334769.stm

This news story is very revealing when it comes to the tragedy of war, but it’s actually far more tragic than it appears at first glance. Tragic in that this world is so insanely two-faced!

An inquest is being held today into the killing of a British soldier L/Co Matty Hull by American pilots in a “blue-on-blue”, an incident where an ally is attacked by mistake. The inquest is receiving a lot of publicity and probably costing a lot of money. The TV showed pictures of Matty Hull’s grieving widow and black-box footage of the American pilots involved. The American pilots engage a tank which they think is Iraqi, then the command centre informs them that the tank is actually British. The pilots are devastated at the news; one of them even says “I’m going to be sick!”

The thing which bothers me is that this whole affair, with all its costs and publicity, is only taking place because the attacker and victim were “on the same side”. If the tank had been Iraqi then there would have been no inquest, no compensation for the victim’s family, little or no publicity; and would the pilots have been as deeply hurt and sickened as they were? Probably not. I’ve seen similar black-box footage of American pilots screaming with elation and excitement as they blow up Iraqi targets. Why? The “enemy” targets are people too, with parents, widows and partners (They’re probably more likely to have partners than any other men because of the status and prestige the Conformist Regime pours upon the military). They’re every bit as much human beings as Matty Hull.

Many people will say that the answer is obvious: This was war and the two “sides” are “enemies”. Well, this is even worse! The one and only thing which makes the difference in attitude towards the killing of Matty Hull and identical Iraqi targets is political bureaucratic orders! If the orders were different then the “enemy forces” could well be allies; then they’d probably be having a drink together in the NAAFI and getting along fine!

It’s often the most obvious questions that never get asked!

If this is sanity then thank God I’m crazy!

[horseflesh]

I watched the video footage earlier on BBC News. They mentioned that the friendlies are marked with large orange squares on their vehicles (talk about an easy target) and the pilots even mentioned that they had noticed the orange squares but thought they may have been "orange missiles". :confused:

[time_2_fight]

first of all, they saw orange markings, and there was radio comunications going on and to make it worse, the allies had put up red smoke signals to let them know they were freindlys.. and after that, the british MOD told the familys there was no video???????

liar liar pants on fire if only a person wasnt killed it would of been a joke

who needs freinds like that?

never trust the US army when its runn by crimanals like bush prat and co

[oneofmany]

Unfortunately, the US forces would have to be the most ill trained forces on this planet. They have always relied on sheer brute force and numbers, not skill and guile I'm afraid, and this incident just proves my point.

[hagbard_celine]

Unfortunately, the US forces would have to be the most ill trained forces on this planet. They have always relied on sheer brute force and numbers, not skill and guile I'm afraid, and this incident just proves my point.

Ask any British serviceman and they'll probably tell you that they dread fighting alongside the Americans. They're trigger-happy and totally incompetant. A man I met once told me he used to be a sonar tech on board a Royal Navy frigate. One day, on an excersise, an American submarine nearly collided with his ship. What was worse the MOD covered it up! He urgently reported to the captain that he could hear an American submarine very close. The captain ordered evasive action and the ship moved out of the way. Later he told my contact that he had to tell everyone that it was a dolphin he heard, not a submarine. The captain even made one of the lookouts write in the log that he'd seen a dolphin in the submarine's position! The lookout then told my contact that he'd actually seen the submarine's periscope! It was only a few dozen feet from the ship! Both vessels were going a a good speed and if they'd colided then they'd probably both have sunk.

[oneofmany]

Ask any British serviceman and they'll probably tell you that they dread fighting alongside the Americans. They're trigger-happy and totally incompetant. A man I met once told me he used to be a sonar tech on board a Royal Navy frigate. One day, on an excersise, an American submarine nearly collided with his ship. What was worse the MOD covered it up! He urgently reported to the captain that he could hear an American submarine very close. The captain ordered evasive action and the ship moved out of the way. Later he told my contact that he had to tell everyone that it was a dolphin he heard, not a submarine. The captain even made one of the lookouts write in the log that he'd seen a dolphin in the submarine's position! The lookout then told my contact that he'd actually seen the submarine's periscope! It was only a few dozen feet from the ship! Both vessels were going a a good speed and if they'd colided then they'd probably both have sunk.

How come I'm not surprised, My Dad works with war veterans, helping with their entitlements (govt always trying to rip them off) and the stories he hears will curl your hair. He was telling me about an American Green Beret unit, who came out to Australia to train where our SAS troops train. The longest any American soldier lasted was 2 weeks. But unfortunately it is a 13 week course, too hard they said, our boys can't take the heat. Guess where those boys got shipped after that. Thats right folks, Vietnam

those poor bastards never had a chance