Not one to praise The Sun newspaper but...

mani · 06-02-2007, 15:11

well done on gettin that "top secret classified" video that the british govt wasnt willing to get

its a shame that there's such a cover up even when it comes to incidents like this.

At the start of the attack in the video obtained by the paper, one pilot notices orange panels on the vehicles and asks whether there could be any friendly units in the area.

His command gives assurances there are no coalition forces in the area.

Pilots open fire but soon the error is realised and they are informed that friendly units were in the area.

They are told: "Abort your mission. You got a, looks we might have a blue-on-blue situation [a friendly fire incident]."

An air controller on the ground says: "We are getting an initial brief that there was one killed and one wounded, over."

One pilot replies: "Copy. RTB [return to base]." A colleague says: "I'm going to be sick."

They then talk about the possibility of being jailed for carrying out the attack.

The first pilot says: "Did you hear?" His colleague replies: "Yeah, this sucks."

"We're in jail, dude," says the first.

The other pilot is audibly upset, saying: "God dammit".

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

cashman · 06-02-2007, 17:51

i couldn,t praise The Sun if i was Paid. but am disgusted with the US powers that be,not re-leasing it.

mani · 06-02-2007, 18:01

should be interesting now to see if the us army is willing to accept blame for this or once agian just shaft our boys

SPUGGIE J · 07-02-2007, 12:28

A lot of soldiers reckon that the safest place to be when the Americans are shooting is with the enemy. That sums it up perfectley I believe. They are to gun ho IMHO.

jambutty · 07-02-2007, 13:10

I have to agree with mani. If the Sun hadn’t got hold of that video would we ever have seen it? I doubt it so yes some Karma for the Sun.

In times of war there will always be casualties from ‘friendly fire’. I don’t know what is so friendly about your own side or allies chucking bullets, shells or bombs at you though. So maybe a different phrase should be used. Something that reflects the tragedy!

It is humans who decide when to fire and pull the trigger and humans make mistakes. This was a tragic mistake, first by the controller who assured the pilots that their were no ‘friendly’ units in the area, then by the pilots in mistaking the orange squares as orange coloured missiles or was that just an excuse. There was another mistake – that of the pilots’ commanders in sending two rookies out on a mission without adequate briefing. An experienced pilot would have known that an orange square on top of a vehicle denotes a friendly unit and would have erred on the side of caution.

Finally I have to agree with SPUGGIE J. Too many American servicemen, particular the rookies are far too gung ho.

Acrylic-bob · 07-02-2007, 16:52

Funny, isn't it, that something that the Pentagon regards as too "classified" to be released is, apparently, easily available to a British newspaper, especially one with such shining regard for journalistic standards as The Sun. Funny also that, having had the "Classified" video tape splashed across all the tv news channels the Pentagon still will not allow the families concerned to view the tape in the Coroners Court. But then again perhaps it is not so funny after all, America has never seen the value of humility.

mani · 07-02-2007, 17:18

to be fair to the pilots they did ask higher command about friendlies and it was higher command who gave the go ahead to open fire.

but yeah it just takes a moment to clarify such things

SPUGGIE J · 07-02-2007, 19:04

Shoot first ask questions later thats the USA answer.