[quote]Originally posted by MagiK:
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I do not bash you if you make valid points. You do seem to be saying that the US military is careless though and I would differ with you there. A coupl eof facts...1 American targeting mistakes get way more coverage than similar mistakes made by other forces. Compare the numbers of missions flown/conducted the accident rate I do believe is a reasonable percentage. I do think that the US has a problem coming out of the 90's where all training budgets were nearly zeroed out may be a cause of increased accidents. I also think that it will take a couple of years before the new budgets can make up for the lost training in the 90's.
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Fair enough. But so far, since the arrival of US troops in Afghanistan, this is the third case of death by friendly fire cause by the US. Similar incidents also took place during Desert Storm and in Viet-Nam. This doesn't count for friendly fire death during peace keeping missions and collateral damages.
The fact is the pilot was flying within a designated live-fire training zone for the ground troops. If he though he was under small-arms fire, all he had to do was to climb over 2,500' AGL and he would have been out of range. Did he do that? No, he twice asked permission to fire and it was twice denied. Still, he droped the bomb which resulted in the death of friendly forces. If you ask any foreing military if they think that the US forces are trigger-happy, I think that you'll be unhappy about the answer! Sorry, it's the stereotype that's out there!
Now, to the training issue. If your forces are not trained to adequate professional standards, then you should keep them at home until they are! Don't sent untrained forces in combat and put them beside trained personnel. They're more a liability than anything else.
Don't get me wrong. Not all American forces are incapable, in fact, the majority of them are well trainned and capable. Like everywhere else, you've got your rotten apple (don't worry, we have some too
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