And it was the American's firing on the British because they are thick. I should rephrase, we're never responsible for friendly fire incidents.
Should have told us they were going in disguised as the enemy!!!! My apologies if I got that incident wrong.
Marko, my friend, this is not just for you, but for anyone else interested in the topic: http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/3774/
Marko, as far as I understand it, the battle in Afghanistan is with the Taliban, not Al Queida, so Osama dying has nothing to do with it. I hope you're proud of your uncle, btw. My stepbrother was blown up there and took a year to die of his wounds.
There are many answers to that, Jonny. I was actually talking re. the context of media reporting - i.e. a 'western' life is far more important than a 3rd world life, in terms of news reporting.
Jock, the difference between AQ & the Taliban is minimal. Marko the notable FF by British forces involved 2 separate SF groups. No surprise there, unlike the Sceptics who couldn't manage to recognise 9 clearly marked Warrier tanks!!!
Not as I understand it! Al Queida is an international terrorist group. The Taliban is an army mainly localised in Afghanistan.
The primary reason for that conflict is the Taliban's harboring of Al Qayda and their refusal to give them up after 9/11. Sorry to read about your step-brother. Did you have a close relationship with him?
I hate the war as some of you will remember I lost a good friend just over a year ago it's sad that this could all have been prevented The forces are amazing but I feel Britain didn't need to get involved in it at all
Sadly not an accident. The presence of ball bearings shows what the intent was. Horrible ****ers seen em a few times; couple of hundred, melting hot steel balls, travelling at incredibly high velocity, shooting out at every direction like bullets. When I was attached to 3 PARA with the Guards Para Platoon a mate lost a leg breaching a door when we was clearing the old quarter of Basra that was bobby trapped with IED constructed with ball bearings. Probably placed there by one of Saddam's militiamen. Luckily he only had his leg infront on the door as it detonated otherwise he'd of lost alot more than a leg. Shows the sort of people we are dealing with though. I think it astonishing people can describe terror organizations like the IRA, Taliban, Al Qaeda as "freedom fighters". Of course I forgot pouring acid on young girls that dare get an education, blowing up innocent people (man, women and child) and pouring petrol through letter boxes of families that refuse to pay protection money was all in the name of freedom. When I was in Afghan you always knew it would kick of on Election Day....why? You really think the Taliban wanted a people it had been oppressing for years with violence a chance to take back their country and have free democratic elections? So the insurgents would kick off hoping people would stay home than go vote. RIP to the Victims and God Bless the people of Boston.
But we learnt from those mistakes and probably developed ways to prevent it. The Americans do it now because they are gung ho and aggressive.
Tbf to them that incident was kinda the fault of the British FAC (Forward Air Controller; guy that directs bombs onto enemy positions) who gave the last coordinate wrong to the aircraft under loud noise (one of the reasons I never wanted to be a FAC...**** up and you or your mates will become a 20/30 foot radius of body parts). Still I suspect a British pilot would of been more cautious before opening fire because American fighter pilots in my experience tend to be more aggressive and think their off Top Gun. Such as the USAF pilot who was recklessly showing off flying at low altitude in Italy? (or somewhere snowy) and managed to clip a ski lift killing quite a few people, the pilots were quickly flown back to the US to avoid prosecution and as per usual the US Government and Military was less than helpful with the investigation.
Fair points all round KM. Not sure on this occasion I agree with your comment on the Brit FAC giving wrong coordinates. Either way, a screw up of the first order. Interesting to note that in the first Gulf War, the RAF were sent in to do the low level flying because USAF simply weren't up to the job. Not sure of the relevance, but just confirms how crap the American military really are. Heyho, can we move back to talking about footy?
Kissa, i know tensions and feeling run high at times like this, but the yanks have an airbase here that is massive and currently housing approx 30K troops, something is going to kick off, hope to god its not that bit of a kid in North Korea!!! and on top of that we have had two earthquake tremors within a week, weird feeling by the way.
Doha Interesting to know and worrying at the same time. Hope the earthquakes aren't severe? Any more betting tips for me?
Friendly fire has been around since gunpowder was invented. Probably the most stupid one of all was The Battle of Loos, when we decided to poison the Germans by releasing 5,500 cylinders of chlorine in their direction - as soon as the cannisters were opened, the wind changed direction and 140 tons of gas injured 2000 British soldiers. Most casualty's has to be the Cap Arcona Incident where we bombed the German transport ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek, and Deutschland which were carrying 10,000 concentration camp survivors and Allied POW's - every one of them died!!
They are after shocks from Iranian quake, but still wierd. More tips on the way mate............you have deposited my cut in the bank i gather
