Friendly Fire

Why am I not surprised to hear that Linda Norgrove, the British Aid Worker, abducted by Al Quaeda forces has been killed by her US Special Forces 'rescuers'?
She was killed when the would be rescuers launched a grenade into the compound where she was being held.

British Special Forces have been talking about the 'Gung-Ho' attitude of some ot their NATO colleagues. Sentiment is not helped by the appointment of Maj Gen Joseph Votel as leader of the team, Investigating the affair. Maj Gen Votel is chief of staff of US Special Operations Command, which oversees US special forces teams in Afghanistan, already under fire because of possible previous atrocities.

In a previous blog (30th Sept 2010) 'Secret Iraq' I commented on the 'Gung-Ho' behaviour of US forces. Nobody pretends that fighting in war is anything but awful, but how is it that so called 'friendly fire' deaths attributed to US forces far outnumber that from other forces?

Shit happens in war, but its not that which bothers me most. It's the insistence by Americans, especially the veterans, that their armed forces are the best when we all know that they fall way below the quality of others. I remember talking to people who lived through the second world war who said that when aircraft flew overhead, it was only if they were American did they head for the air raid shelters.