There's a lot of sh1te being spouted here by people that have never even been to Iraq or Afghanistan so aren't even aware of what exactly was / is going on let alone the intricacies of CAS.
finknottle said:
This is a negligent discharge of mega proportions and it's about time that those responsible were brought to book.
Firstly Fink, yes you are correct, in this instant they should be hung out to dry. The American troops are very, very quick to call in CAS, pretty much the moment a TIC kicks off they want air. Similarly, the aircrews are very quick to go kinetic and out ordnance down, in some ways they seem stuck in 2006, well that period is over and it's 2009 and yes we are in the hearts minds and development stage of operations.
With that in mind though, the US pilots are very good at what they do, they have saved countless lives, including civilian and British, but this is a very intense conflict, there will be casualties. And no it is not acceptable but it is to be expected, accidents, misunderstandings and occasional stupidity happen. That's war.
danny said:
Yeah the brits would never kill anyone by mistake in an air attack. Maybe not civilians but i can think of at least 2 ocassions in the last few years were british forces have been attacked.
There was the apache attack which shot a load of paras last year.
And the year before that some FAC called an american jet to drop a bomb on 1 royal anglian.
At the end of the day i think the main reason we dont hear about as many british incidents is puerly down to the fact there are hardly and UK air assest in comparisson to american ones.
Utter, utter bollocks. The British have also made errors, both on the ground and in the air, just not as many. The reason we don't make as many mistakes? We, assess the situation, it's the British way, we will look at whats going on and build the picture, we also follow ROE, TO THE LETTER. If there is ANY doubt, the bomb won't go. And as for hardly any UK air Assets? British Harriers are available, and more often than not used 24 / 7 / 365. I will not break opsec by telling you the daily programme but they are airborne, A LOT.
finknottle said:
So just why do they bomb an area when they know civilians are present? Don't try and say they didn't know as they had troops on the ground and damned well should have known.
In many, many instances mate, you have to cut through what you read and see the bigger picture. It is reported as Civilians but those who are civilians one minute are dicking us or shooting at us the next. The press will report what it likes, and you will buy it. I'm not saying innocents don't die or get bombed, far from it, what I am saying is I have known for a FACT insurgents being killed and it then being reported as civvies. You're an intelligent man Fink, you must surely take all you read with a pinch of salt.
This is all I'm going to say on this as it's an emotive subject for me, Whizzbangdai is right though, the yank bashing gets very old and tired when some of us owe ours and our friends lives to the skill of their aviators and troops.