US F-16 Kills 4 Canadians, Wounds 8

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Tingkai
IIRC, the Brits who died from "friendly fire" in the Gulf were killed by American helicopter pilots.

Were those 9 the only ones?

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by GP
I just smell something fishy...

You should see a doctor about that.

If the Americans can show they have made some efforts to prevent this from happening again, then fine, send the PPCLI back in. (Or the 1RCR or the 22RCR).

The Canadian government needs to show that it is concerned about what happened. Pulling out the troop would show them that we are concerned about what happens to them.

At the moment, we just have the politicians doing the usual blah, blah, blah.

From the Toronto Star:

"Canadian Gen. Ray Henault, chief of defence staff, told reporters yesterday the "100 or so" personnel from Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were on a routine training exercise that he believed had been cleared with the Americans.

"I can assure you that all training operations, training exercises and operations that are done in the theatre of operations in Afghanistan are fully coordinated and are well aware to all of the levels of command and control in the theatre," he said.

"Our training exercises done by the Canadian battle group are exercises which are pre-coordinated with the brigade commander himself and with his staff. No operations which are outside the Kandahar airfield are undertaken without full coordination.

"So I am absolutely convinced that all of the mechanisms that are in place and all of the command and control and advisory mechanisms that have to be followed, were followed."

[TCO]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


When I start calling people no-good "yanqui" cowboys then I'm really just yanking their chain...

As long as I'm not in KH's ignore list, he's tolerating me...

[TCO]

Tingkai, it was an accident. A fatal accident sure. But accidents do happen when men operate dangerous machinery and carry weapons in war zones.

1. Were you strongly in favor of the CA involvement initially?

2. Would you remain so if there had been 4 casualties in enemy action?

3. Would you remain so if the 4 casaulties had been in transport (helicopter crashes account for many fatalities in modern war).

4. Would you remain so if the 4 casualties had been freindly fire from a Canadian?

[DanS]

" Pilot in f-15 (strike) can lase on own. Better to have on-ground lasing than in plane...but it is still available. F-16 rpbably similar.

(So you are right KH.)"

Thanks for the correction.

[Tingkai]

1. Were you strongly in favor of the CA involvement initially?
No, I was more middle of the road. On the one hand, I question the strategy being used to achieved the desired goals. Bin Laden is still at large. The Taliban are out of power, but not destroyed. Having said that, the Americans got the Taliban out of power with a low casaulty rate (or at least it could have been a lot worse for civilians.

I am in favour of supporting our allies when they are attacked, but there are limits.

I am not calling for a permament pull out, just a temporary one until the Americans show that they have taken steps to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

2. Would you remain so if there had been 4 casualties in enemy action?

No. Casaulties from enemy fire are part of war. The troops are volunteers and they know that they can be killed in these situations and they are willing to accept that risk.

3. Would you remain so if the 4 casaulties had been in transport (helicopter crashes account for many fatalities in modern war).

No. Flying helicopters in the mountains is a high risk procedure. Furthermore, I know that American helicopter pilots are trained for these conditions. Again, an accepted risk of the profession.

4. Would you remain so if the 4 casualties had been freindly fire from a Canadian? [/QUOTE]

If that happened, then the regiment involved should be pulled out and replaced by another regiment. I say that based on what happened when the Canadian Airborne Regiment went to Somalia. There were major discpline problems and the investigation afterwards showed that the regiment was not ready for active duty and that the regiment's 2iC had recommended that the regiment not be sent overseas.