Originally posted by brettig:
I think what is really at fault in this latest friendly fire incident is the military mindset, which means any military in any country.
Oh really? Please inform us on what the military mindset IS and what you feel it should become.
Keep in mind, the "unofficial motto" of many in the military is "Pray for peace, Prepare for WaR".
This isnt the 1st time a keyed up serviceman has ignored orders or got a nervy trigger finger (the 3 most famous i can think of are The Boston Massacre preceding the American Revolution, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and the 1905 massacre of Russian peasants in front of the St Petersburg Winter palace by the Tsar's troops).
Keep in mind, we don't (or at least I don't ) know all of the details yet. We don't know if something malfunctioned on the aircraft (not likely imo), or if something happened on the ground to cause him to ignore orders and fire (very likely imo), or if the transmission was miscommunicated (likely imo), or if he just freaked (highly unlikely).
The best form of inquiry would be one that examined the chain of command, for if this pilot was ordered not to drop his bombs and still did, there must be some problem with the delivery/context/information contained in the orders he received.
Yeah this is given to happen, standard procedure in fact.
I think the blame rests with the pilot, but if we are to prevent these kinds of misunderstandings/incidents/needless deaths, then we need to look at why he did what he did, and how that can be addressed. I dont think this is a question of involvement in afghanistan, because as ive shown, this is a wider issue that streches across many nations and many eras.
[This message has been edited by brettig (edited 04-19-2002).]
Back to what I was hinting at about "what is a military mindset", I think too many people associate this with 'TOP GUN' or other movies that glamorize war and depicts the (in this case) pilots as reckless studs who blow up hostile/enemy targets then shoot back to base for cold beers with the boys and hot drunk sex with the girls.
WRONG
The military mindset cannot be explained to anyone who has not or will not be in this situation. Or at least it cannot be fully appreciated, respectfully.
While I won't bore you with details, right now, I do want you to try and understand something. Bullets make a funny sound, almost comical. Artillery rounds are loud and scary. Anti-aircraft artillery rounds are pretty to look at, the tracer round that is (not all are tracer rounds), like fireworks.
You never hear the ones with your name on them.
[This message has been edited by z edge (edited 04-20-2002).]