Last night a senior US military source told The Sun: “This tape needs to get out. The pilots need to be brought to account.”
About as simplistic and shallow as I'd expect from the media.
Well,, the pilots will be made the scapegoats for the incident. And the pilots knew that at the time; when it goes bad, they will be sacrificed for the "greater good" --- that's just the military way when dealing with the public and politicians. The breakdown was not solely with the pilots in this incident, IMHO.
Pilots don't operate on their own in a combat box. All Blue Force are supposed to be kept track of by Controllers. Obvious that location of friendlies were unknown while strike operations ongoing. The Controller confirmed no friendlies and gave the pilots the green light to attack.
I also don't know what those pilot's ROE was at that time, or what that tactical situation was for the OA. If Orange Panels were in common use by that time, and they were aware of it, then their attack while there was "something" orange on top of the vehicles, they CAN be faulted for carrying through with the attack. This was Basra in March 2003. I hit the ground in Baghdad at the end of 2003, and we got our orange panels around February, but we got everything late.
Buck Fever? Coming to the end of a patrol with nothing to show for it?
It should also be clear that communications were about as screwed up as it normally is.
Friendly Fire happens. If you take every step to avoid it at all costs, you end up still losing soldiers to indecision and indecisiveness and become combat ineffective. It is to be avoid. You take steps to avoid it. But it still happens. It's called combat.
But most people will just see the video, maybe an official PR press release, and the video of justifiably anguished family paraded forth by the media bottom feeders and lawyers. They won't hear the testimonies of anyone else associated with this. They won't get the details. They will consider what is happening in the context of 2007, not March 2003. But the pilots will be crucified in the public media machine for ratings and circulation more than anything else.
And if you haven't been in a combat environment: you're opinion don't count. Sorry.... it just doesn't in my book. No offense intended.
