Afghan Friendly Fire?

The first line “If something can go wrong in war, it will.” must be the understatement of the century. Yes, it can and now it has.

All we got to find out how and why it happened. Perhaps we can add that a bit of truth will help.

The Taliban, of course, bears responsibility. Yep. And their leadership ought to hang for the crime.

Out of no disrespect to this woman, she lost her life. But, why do people chose to go to what we know as one of the most dangerous places in the world in the first place? Are there no “needy” people in England that she could help?
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Same goes for the 3 who were “hiking” near the Iraq / Iran border. Do they not realize this is also a dangerous place? They can’t find other places around the globe to strap on their backpacks to hike?

Chose = choose

I’m very curious as to why the assault teams were using live grenades instead of flashbangs in a hostage rescue attempt.
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For some context, the military initially wrote its MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) manuals while planning to fight in the cities of Eastern Europe. These building largely featured heavy concrete construction and walls. So the standard method of entry began with tossing a fragmentation grenade in, followed by a stack rush as soon as the device detonated.
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In Afghanistan and Iraq many buildings, especially in the small towns, are wood, daub, or mud/clay mixtures which simply cannot take the impact of an American M67 without inflicting splash damage on the guys throwing it. This is one reason flashbangs have become more common. Another is the frequent intermixing of combatants and COBs (Civilians on the Battlefield) everywhere.
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I’ve got no idea what kind of structures were involved in this raid, and I’m not blaming the guys who ran the op. But I’d really like to hear the reasoning of the guy who authorized it for including frags over flashbangs on a rescue attempt, where you are absolutely certain that you don’t want to harm, much less kill, every individual in the building.

Why rush the story? C’mon, that’s the way the media works. Rush the story to the front page, whether it’s accurate or not. Be “first”, accuracy be damned.

Rusty,
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Some of those go to the more dangerous places because they see it’s where they are needed most.
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Here’s a quote from a Smithsonian article written about one of the Vietnam-era photo journalists:

“I’ve searched for an answer why I stayed all those years,” says George Esper, an AP reporter who spent nearly a decade in Vietnam. “What I keep coming back to was a young nurse from upstate New York I saw on a firebase. It was monsoon season. We were under rocket attack. She was tending the badly wounded. Some died in her arms. And I said, ‘Wow. What a woman! Why are you here?’ and she said, ‘Because I’ve never felt so worthwhile in my life.’ That’s how I felt, too.”

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THAT’s why I think she went. It’s also probably why someone like Mother Teresa served her life in a h#llhole in Calcutta.
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I couldn’t do those things. My hat’s off to the ones who have the guts to do it.

I’m NOT counting the hikers among those – they went into a dangerous area, at least a little, for the sheer thrill of it.
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They didn’t need to go THERE to have a good hike. And they served no noble purpose by being there.

Mark Thompson:
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“Never understood the wisdom of rushing out with a story that later has to be retracted. Not that it makes any difference to Ms. Norgrove or her loved ones.”
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Have you seen “The Pat Tillman Story”?
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I am certain that this was just a tragic mistake, and the blame is solely with the Taliban, but the problem I have is why does the army/govt always rush out with a story they have to retract? This was the whole problem with Pat Tillman. He was no less brave or heroic because he was killed by “friendly-fire” and the cover-up just made the army look very bad.

I didn’t question the lady’s nobility for attempting to do what she has done. The same that I also believe missionaries” also fall into the same category too.
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I just find it a little like teenagers who feel invincible, they can take un-necessary risks for what purpose? Isn’t there people within the region, who actually live there who they could fund to to the work. Who are less conspicuous? Who would place our own troops into harms way in order to save their lives when the Taliban picks them up to make a political point?
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Mother Theresa and others like her are not in the middle of Pakistan, right in the middle of this War, are they?
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Some I take my hat off to, like Clara Barton. The first Nurse who went into the battlefield to save lives of the fallen soldiers.

It seems that these type of missions have no drawbacks to the rescuers or the people who order them.
1. If it’s a success, they’ll be hailed as heroes
2. if it’s a failure and the hostage dies, they can blame the terrorists.

The person who order these kind of operations might only consider the probability of success, which can be lower than 80%, instead of keeping the hostages alive, which should be 100%.

Well, she’s white and British, so she got a rescue attempt. Tragic that it didn’t go well.

Why did Christ reach out to those in need? Why did he go preach where he knew he would be met with his death?

Jessica Lynch anyone?
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H*ll, the whole run up to the Iraqi war.

I didn’t question the lady’s nobility for attempting to do what she has done.
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I knew you weren’t, Rusty. I got your point.
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In Calcutta, it would be the disease that would have gotten Mother Teresa. There are different types of “danger” – some you see (or hear), some you can’t.
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IIRC, they didn’t refer to certain parts of the city as the “Black Hole” for nothing.
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Clara Barton’s a great example too.

I put Tillman in with the group of sports stars that volunteered during WWII and Korea. I saw on one of the cable channels that, after the onset of WWII, 90% of the major and minor league players put their careers on hold and served.
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Tillman may be even more of an anomaly in modern times – he didn’t have to go, and gave up a really good pro contract to do so.
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Money obviously wasn’t the point with him.
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And, yes, the military has gotten far too concerned with PR and spin. As always, it’s not the original issue that causes the problems – it’s the attempted PR spin or cover-ups.
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Vietnam had the “Five O’clock Follies”. It’s been downhill ever since regarding their trust.

RX — Have to think President Jimmy Carter — whose hopes for re-election were dashed in 1980 when the effort to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran ended in tragedy at Desert One — might disagree. Not to mention the eight troops who perished there.

“No drawbacks to the rescuers”? Everyone training for that mission in the U.S. military knows his next mission could be his last.