Friendly Fire
2007-02-07

There are many things the UK and Canada have in common. Lennox Lewis, Greg Rusedski, Conrad Black, Owen Hargreaves, oh, and the fact that we have both had soldiers killed by American “friendly fire” in the middle east.

In 2002, an American F16 dropped a bomb on a group of Canadian soldiers who were involved in a training mission in Kandahar. Four soldiers were killed. The two pilots were brought up on the charges but never punished. Not only did they not see any jail time for manslaughter (like they bloody well should have), they didn’t even get court martialled. The common feeling at the time was these sorts of things happen in the fog of war.

Yesterday, a cockpit video was leaked to the press (The Sun of all papers) that showed two American pilots strafing a British military convoy in 2003, killing one soldier. The two pilots did not receive clearance to fire and have not been punished since. In the video, the pilots are shown shooting at the British soldiers TWICE and laughing about it. Once they are told they have fired on allies, the soldiers are heard saying “We’re going to jail, dude” and “Is your tape still on?”

The most infuriating thing about this is how the US Military is responding to it. In the three and a half years since, the US government has never released the tape saying it was classified or that it didn’t exist. Now that it has been leaked, they’re saying Oh, yeah, we do have it, silly us! Someone must’ve dropped it behind the couch.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said "these people (the pilots and crew) immediately understood that it was a terrible mistake and they felt immediate remorse for what happened." I don’t know about you, but if I have found out I have accidentally killed a friend, I don’t think I’d be worried about going to jail (dude) or if my tape was still on. I’d maybe feel bad for the victim and his family, I might even think about sending them some flowers, or at least a card. Do Hallmark make a “Sorry I dropped a bomb on your son in Iraq” card?

And since when do Iraqi terrorists have tanks? I could see if it was a convoy of armored camels, but these were TANKS they shot at. I’m no military genius, but if I saw a line of tanks in Iraq, I may give shooting them a second thought.

And why is it only the Americans that kill their allies in the Middle East? You never hear of a British jet or a Canadian jet shooting at American ground troops. Ok, obviously Canada’s jets probably aren’t capable of shooting anything, but the British military has some badass weaponry. Why haven’t they accidentally killed anyone?

It's a mystery. (And yes, that's sarcasm)