{"id":87,"date":"2006-01-03T02:41:24","date_gmt":"2006-01-03T07:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=87"},"modified":"2018-08-23T21:23:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T01:23:22","slug":"14611-%c2%a0%c2%a0-michael-friscolnati-friendly-fire-%e2%80%95-the-untold-story-of-the-u-s-bombing-that-killed-four-canadian-soldiers-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=87","title":{"rendered":"14611. (Michael Friscolnati) Friendly Fire \u2015 The Untold Story of the U. S. Bombing That Killed Four Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

This inci\u00addent, prob\u00ada\u00adbly lit\u00adtle known to the pub\u00adlic in the U.S., was a big issue in Cana\u00adda. Cana\u00addi\u00adans, on the whole, approve of hav\u00ading a mil\u00adi\u00adtary pres\u00adence in Afghanistan, and of fight\u00ading against the Tal\u00adiban. The Cana\u00addian armed forces were eager to get into a clear-cut com\u00adbat sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion, after decades of nerve-wrack\u00ading peace\u00adkeep\u00ading mis\u00adsions where they faced con\u00adstant dan\u00adger, but couldn\u2019t go on the offen\u00adsive. The issue of fight\u00ading under U. S. or British direc\u00adtion, how\u00adever, has always been a touchy one for Cana\u00addi\u00adans. Nev\u00ader\u00adthe\u00adless, there was a huge pop\u00adu\u00adlar back\u00ading at home for a Cana\u00addian pres\u00adence in Afghanistan, which is still felt, despite this inci\u00addent. The bulk of the Cana\u00addian pub\u00adlic sees this as an absolute\u00adly dis\u00adtinct issue from Iraq: the war against Osama and the Tal\u00adiban is war against ter\u00adror\u00adism, while the war in Iraq is a dis\u00adgust\u00ading swin\u00addle by a lying, trai\u00adtor\u00adous George Bush regime and inter\u00adna\u00adtional oil car\u00adtels, which Cana\u00addi\u00adans nev\u00ader want\u00aded any part of.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>As it turned out, Cana\u00addi\u00adans suf\u00adfered as many casu\u00adal\u00adties at the hand of Amer\u00adi\u00adcans in Afghanistan as from the ene\u00admy, some\u00adthing which Cana\u00addi\u00adans viewed with a shrug\u00adging \u201cwhat else would you expect?\u201d cyn\u00adi\u00adcism. Cana\u00addian troops oper\u00adat\u00ading on the ground were bombed by two Amer\u00adi\u00adcan fight\u00ader pilots. The pub\u00adlic anger at the Bush regime was more because of the boor\u00adishly tact\u00adless way the White House han\u00addled the event than the event itself. Nat\u00adu\u00adrally, the sol\u00addiers fam\u00adi\u00adlies cried for blood. Even\u00adtu\u00adally, the U. S. mil\u00adi\u00adtary sub\u00adjected the pilots to a grue\u00adsome tri\u00adal. Every\u00adthing about the issue smelled.<\/span><\/p>\n

This exhaus\u00adtive book is by a jour\u00adnal\u00adist for a major Cana\u00addian news\u00adpa\u00adper who was present from the start. What comes across in it is pret\u00adty straight\u00adfor\u00adward. The Cana\u00addi\u00adans on the ground were exem\u00adplary sol\u00addiers, doing every\u00adthing by the book. The Amer\u00adi\u00adcan pilots were exem\u00adplary sol\u00addiers, doing what was expect\u00aded of them. The main pur\u00adpose of the tri\u00adal seems to have been to avoid ruf\u00adfling feath\u00aders and keep blame away from any\u00adone actu\u00adally in charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cana\u00addian mil\u00adi\u00adtary is best described as \u201cmorale-based\u201d It is chron\u00adi\u00adcally under-equipped and starved of funds by a stingy Fed\u00aderal gov\u00adern\u00adment. Cana\u00addian sol\u00addiers are expect\u00aded to make do, impro\u00advise, and achieve goals by grit and loy\u00adalty. [When told to leave the bod\u00adies of their com\u00adrades to be picked up lat\u00ader, the sur\u00adviv\u00ading Cana\u00addi\u00adans out\u00adright refused.] The cur\u00adrent Amer\u00adi\u00adcan mil\u00adi\u00adtary is best described as \u201cgad\u00adget-dri\u00adven\u201d. Both armies are well-trained, but in the U. S. sys\u00adtem, it is clear that weapons sys\u00adtems shape strat\u00adegy, and sol\u00addiers are expect\u00aded to be jammed into the mould. The war in Afghanistan was run by remote con\u00adtrol, from a com\u00admand cen\u00adter a thou\u00adsand kilo\u00adme\u00adtres away, in Sau\u00addi Ara\u00adbia. Very hi-tech and spiffy. The sophis\u00adti\u00adcated gad\u00adgetry either pro\u00advided too much infor\u00adma\u00adtion for sol\u00addiers (and espe\u00adcially pilots) to han\u00addle on the spot, or too lit\u00adtle infor\u00adma\u00adtion, or wrong infor\u00adma\u00adtion. There had already been numer\u00adous close-call \u201cfriend\u00adly fire\u201d inci\u00addents (one Cana\u00addian unit was saved only by the fact that the bomb that fell among them was a dud). An attempt by on-the-spot com\u00adman\u00adders to bring the Sau\u00addi Ara\u00adbian admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtors to Afghanistan and show them why it wasn\u2019t work\u00ading was thwart\u00aded \u2015 the admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtors called it off because of incon\u00adve\u00adnient weather.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Amer\u00adi\u00adcan pilots were dragged through a night\u00admar\u00adish tri\u00adal to fix respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity on them. The kan\u00adga\u00adroo-court atmos\u00adphere of the tri\u00adals is inescapably obvi\u00adous, from this book\u2019s account. There may have been a small ele\u00adment of neg\u00adli\u00adgence among the pilots, espe\u00adcially if you take into con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion the dan\u00adger\u00adous drugs they were pres\u00adsured to take dur\u00ading mis\u00adsions (and to sign \u201cvol\u00adun\u00adtary releas\u00ades\u201d for), but this account makes it pret\u00adty obvi\u00adous that the inci\u00addent was over\u00adwhelm\u00adingly the result of incom\u00adpe\u00adtence in pol\u00adicy and admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion. The tri\u00adal appears to have been large\u00adly designed to deflect any blame reach\u00ading high\u00ader brass. This sort of thing is famil\u00adiar to any\u00adone who reads his\u00adtory. Mil\u00adi\u00adtaries always cul\u00adti\u00advate the image that they \u201ctake care of their own\u201d, but it is pret\u00adty much always a lie \u2015 the sol\u00addier is by def\u00adi\u00adn\u00adi\u00adtion an expend\u00adable tool, and mil\u00adi\u00adtary hier\u00adar\u00adchies see no dif\u00adfer\u00adence between sac\u00adri\u00adfic\u00ading sol\u00addiers to keep their jobs, and sac\u00adri\u00adfic\u00ading them to cap\u00adture a hill. In this inci\u00addent, nobody in any seri\u00adous posi\u00adtion of author\u00adity even got their hair mussed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This inci\u00addent, prob\u00ada\u00adbly lit\u00adtle known to the pub\u00adlic in the U.S., was a big issue in Cana\u00adda. Cana\u00addi\u00adans, on the whole, approve of hav\u00ading a mil\u00adi\u00adtary pres\u00adence in Afghanistan, and of fight\u00ading against the Tal\u00adiban. The Cana\u00addian armed forces were \u2026<\/p>\n

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