US soldiers that bombed Canadians honored as heroes

[H Tower]

Originally posted by notyoueither
They were there because your government asked for them, and Canada honoured its commitment under NATO.

NATO has nothing to do with this. Afghanistan is not within the specified area of concern for NATO

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Lonestar
You think they thought the hinese Embassy in Belgrade was a Serb target?

No I think it was like the French embassy in Libya, a tragic mistake

[Venom]

I trust they're being honored for their aim and not wasting any bombs.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by H Tower


NATO has nothing to do with this. Afghanistan is not within the specified area of concern for NATO

Oh contraire. A NATO member was attacked.

There was very little debate here about sending troops because the government cited the NATO treaty.

I believe similar things happened in some European countries.

[notyoueither]

http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/intl/0913/nato.html

NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council at Ambassadorial Level
Statement on the Terrorist Attacks
September 13, 2001

The NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, meeting in extraordinary session at Ambassadorial level on 13 September 2001, expressed its anger and indignation at the barbaric acts committed against the people of the United States of America. The deepest sympathies of Allies and Russia lie with the victims and their families. While Allies and Russia have suffered from terrorist attacks against civilians, the horrific scale of the attacks of 11 September is without precedent in modern history. NATO and Russia are united in their resolve not to let those responsible for such an inhuman act to go unpunished. NATO and Russia call on the entire international community to unite in the struggle against terrorism.

NATO and Russia will intensify their cooperation under the Founding Act to defeat this scourge.

END

[joseph1944]

Well one thing is for sure, not a single one of us, was at the site when this accident happen. So until we find out all the facts, repeat all the facts you should keep cool heads.
And for all of you non-veteran keep a lid on it. You have zero ideal what goes on in the military and yet a war zone flying at night and seeing tracer jumping all over the place.

[Asher]

joseph1944: Two inquiries have concluded with the same result -- what are you talking about waiting for the facts?

It's impossible for us to be there, but both the Americans and Canadians have investigated and came to the same conclusion...

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Lonestar
As my Instructor would say, "Pilots shoot at anything that's shiny. You think they thought the hinese Embassy in Belgrade was a Serb target? No, they saw a Satillite dish."

Your instructor was wrong. They were ordered to hit that target, and the people who ordered them knew it was the Chinese embassy. The embassy was using its radio station to rebroadcast Serbian military radio. While it was a deliberate act of war against China, it was also a legitimate target.

[Venom]

Yeah! We legally bombed the Chinese!

[joseph1944]

Originally posted by Asher
joseph1944: Two inquiries have concluded with the same result -- what are you talking about waiting for the facts?

It's impossible for us to be there, but both the Americans and Canadians have investigated and came to the same conclusion...

Did they release every thing to the public? If they did I would be real surprised. The Military never releases every thing to the public. Remember I was in and worked for the US Navy for 33 + years and they never admitted to anything with 100% of the trued.

[Seeker]

I can't believe people are actually rallying around these jerks!

They should get nailed right to the wall, I don't care if they were totally green and panicked, they put on the unifrom, they gave up their rights.

right to the ****ing wall.

[joseph1944]

Originally posted by Venom
Yeah! We legally bombed the Chinese!

What we told them was to keep their nose out of our business.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Seeker
I can't believe people are actually rallying around these jerks!

They should get nailed right to the wall, I don't care if they were totally green and panicked, they put on the unifrom, they gave up their rights.

right to the ****ing wall.

The above is the reason why people are lining up to defend them. If it turns out to be the case that they screwed up, then yes, they should be punished appropriately. And frankly, friendly fire is something that happens in war, get over it. If the case is, as the pilots allege, they weren't properly briefed, then they shouldn't be punished at all.

I think y'all should wait to hear the evidence before convicting these men.

[MOBIUS]

No, that's not what I said. I'm saying that My Lai was unquestioningly worse - this friendly fire incident was an accident, while My Lai was on purpose. It makes no sense to punish an accident greater than an intentional slaughter, wouldn't you agree?

Sarcasm old boy… The point is that it is unfortunately impractical to bring up the past and punish the perps of My Lai, what we can do however is prosecute new cases to the fullest of our ability – if only to show the military of today that it cannot get away with the excesses (My Lai) of the past…

And I'm sure I can dig up instances in history where British friendly fire killed American soldiers.

I’m sure you can, but I have to say that the Germans killed an awful lot more US soldiers in WWII than the British did…

Look, I'm not saying these guys should get off scot free - I'm simply saying that these guys are people too, and made a mistake. Kick them out of the military, give them a dishonorable discharge, even, but don't ruin their lives by locking them up for the rest of their lives.

That they are – in which case there are far too many ‘people’ in the US military and not enough soldiers…

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat Mostly because our troops are the ones who actually fight. Of course, we know what you're really mad about. It ain't our fault if your guys can't properly call in a target, identify themselves, and then stay out of the target zone.

Which is precisely why I don’t understand how you can kill so many British and Canadian troops – there are so few of us around!

The war of independence finished hundreds of years ago, OK! You won, so please stop killing us!

Let's see what you do under fire.

I don’t have to, I get some poor grunt to do it for me – preferably from another country.

I am ‘cool under fire’ in an office situation…

Well, if you'd agressively engaged the goddamned Iraqis, maybe they would have had more chances to shoot your troops asses off. Did you ever stop to think for a minute how maybe the reason the Iraqis were so generally ineffective at inflicting casualties was due in large measure to the overwhelming number of close support sorties that were effectively on target?

Uh, riiiiight – so your logic is that because we’re not at the front fighting the Iraqis, we can’t be killed by them. OK, makes sense – so how come British troops got killed by the US, if they were obviously so far away from the fighting?
Yes, you’re right about the sorties that were so effectively on target – they did a good job annihilating a routed Iraqi army on Highway of Death. Bravo!

At least ours fight.

Well ours don’t get the chance because apparently as you would have us believe they’re killed behind the lines or on exercise – they would but they keep getting killed…

I notice you can’t even argue against the fact that they are too trigger happy.

I’d check the US casualty list in Afghanistan if I were you – at one point something approaching 50% of US casualties KIA or wounded were are a result of US fire…

Not to mention the Canadian friendly fire/hostile fire ratio.

You even almost killed Hamed Karzai before he came to power – imagine what a colossal f*ck up that would have been!

There was that artillery incident about a year ago in Saudi or Kuwait that plastered those poor hapless Kiwis, hell the US has even shot down at least one airliner – not to mention all the many ‘000’s of civilians in Afghanistan, Somalia, Panama, Iraq, Serbia…

Face it – the US army is hooked on blowing innocent people away, something needs to be changed to prevent this from happening as often as it does!

[Rogan Josh]

I think the two pilots should be disciplined, but I also think there should be some attempt to tackle the root problem. It looks very much like they were not adequately trained for the mission - they did not follow procedures and were not properly briefed.

I hope that some heads roll (metaphorically of course) in the command hierarchy too. To say that this was entirely the two pilots' fault in making them scapegoats I think.