the other press >>> FEATURES Combat Fratricide: what it is. What it isn’t. tracers glowing green and disappearing into the horizon as they punched into the night sky. The figures emerged from the low build- ing and took cover in protected positions. A report came in, “They’re firing at us.” Friesen adjusted the night-imaging gog- gles and could see tracers being fired towards the Bradley tanks. “Return fire, suppression only.” High-explosive machine gun rounds punched into the sides of the building and over top of the positions where the hostiles had taken cover. The “approaching command squadron’s_high- frequency transmitter cut in over the tank squadron’ frequency, drowning out Friesen’s commands to ceasefire. Through his night vision optics Friesen witnessed one figure moving away providing support for a second, apparently wounded figure. A fire burned brightly from the building, ignit- ed by the explosive machine gun rounds, illuminating the scene even further. The command unit was issuing orders for scouts to move in. Friesen tried helplessly to countermand the order, but the frequen- cy of the tank transmitters was no match for the radio power of the command vehicle. Without warning Friesen witnessed a burst of machinegun fire rip through the body of the figure who was supporting the wound- ed figure. Blood and body parts exploded in green hues as the 25mm explosive rounds tore through flesh, bullets seeming to drag tails of green blood. The figure lurched of its feet, landing lifeless on the ground, the second figure falling with out support, knocked roughly to the ground. “Cease fire goddammit,” screamed Friesen into his comset. It was too late. The command vehicle arrived shortly after. Scouts were deployed. The building burned, increasing into an inferno, bodies began scattering from the building, which suddenly exploded, throwing bodies reck- lessly in every direction. Someone was shouting over the radio, “They're all dead. They’re all fucking dead!” : As the scene cleared, bodies which had been strewn haphazardly began picking themselves up. American keviar helmets became visible through the night optics. Reports began coming in from the scouts. The dismount that had been killed was an American infantryman. There were others wounded by the fire and explosion. Friesen looked at the faces of his crew, all pale and sunken; stares of sickly disbelief over what had just transpired. Questions of who had fired the killing burst? Why hadn’t they been informed this airbase had already been captured by allied forces almost twen- ty-four hours earlier? This was to be the beginning of a long battle for Captain Friesen, as he fought a cover up of what happened that night at Umm Hajul. In Summary Friendly fire is not uncommon in combat. Statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Vietnam Veterans Association, the UN, and the US Department of Defence reveal a correlation between incidents .of friendly fire and technology. As technology increases, so do friendly fire incidents. In the First World War, 21% of casualties were due to friendly fire. During the Gulf War those fig- ures had climbed to almost 50%. The only aberrant statistics are those given by the US Department of National Defence, which gives lower figures. There are several possible rea- sons for this. One reason is concerned with the statistics of injury versus fatality; perhaps the US DND only quotes incidents resulting in fatalities, explaining the lower figure of 20% friendly fire casualties during the Gulf War compared to the other sources that claim close to 50% friendly fire casualties. The following is a list of friendly fire inci- dents that have occurred in Afghanistan since the invasion in October of 2001: —Red Cross warehouses were bombed October 16 as they were in a compound believed during the opening offensive in the Shah-e- Kot valley, but it was later discovered his death was a result of a miscalculated attack by an American attack plane. There are ten other incidents that may or may not be friendly fire. These have all been labelled: Under Inquiry. Friendly Fire: What it is. What it isn’t. In times of combat, the majority of friendly fire incidents can be directly linked to lack of communication between soldiers on the bat- tlefield with command centres, decisions made by command who are often far away from the actual battle, soldiers being so wound up with the knowledge that they are in a situation that means kill or be killed, and of course instances of mistaken identity. Friendly fire incidents are not a reflection of incompetent soldiers. They are not a reflec- tion of levels of ability, and it is disturbing that jokes are made about such _ horrible tragedies. Friendly fire has always been a part of war, but as technology increases, and people can be killed from miles away with faces never being seen, the stats will contin- ue to climb, and soldiers will be left to live with the knowledge that they downed a friendly. So long as there is war, people will die in horrible ways—above all else, let’s remem- ber that. to be also used by the Taleban. The report said that the International Red Cross had failed to include the facility in a list of its facilities. The site was bombed a second time on October 26. —In November 2001 a UN Convoy was dam- aged by debris from bombing. The report said that the convoy “was not travelling on the days for which it had requested THE GREAT LITTLE SHOP IN NEW WESTI! Just 1 block west of your college! 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