Friendly Fire?

(Wordless Wednesday below this post)

Canadian Troups have taken a lot of loses in afghanistan in the last few months. This past week has been particularly bad. I hate to hear about our brave soldiers losing their lives while fighting with the enemy or because they were ambushed by the Taliban, but at least they went there knowing that that could happen. However when I hear that our soldiers were killed or wounded due to friendly fire I get really angry.

PANJWAII, Afghanistan (CP) - The sun lifted into a clear sky with the usual haze of dust at 5:30 a.m. Monday while two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts swept down the narrow Arghandab River valley, blasting away at supposed Taliban positions.

A young corporal from Newfoundland glanced toward the heavens, noting one aircraft’s sickening low-pitched moan as it shattered the ground with a 10-second burst of about 300 shells the size of pop cans.

It’s far from the rat-tat-tat usually associated with a machine-gun.

“It’s like the noise a whale makes when it runs into a ship,” said Cpl. J. R. Smith from Mount Pearl, N.L.

An hour later, the soldiers found out more than 30 Canadian soldiers, including Pte. Mark Graham who died, were the unintended targets at the bottom of that strafing run. A giant Chinook helicopter was needed to ferry out all the wounded.

How can something like this happen?

In earlier reports it was stated that the Canadian troups were aware that the US fighter planes would be passing over within a half hour. If the Canadians knew the Thunderbolts would be passing by, why on earth did the US pilots not know that the Canadians were right below them? How did they mistake the Canadian troups for Taliban Insergents?

I don’t understand. I want some answers as to how something like this could happen. 30 injured, 1 dead (a father, an Olympic relay runner). Of the 30 injured only 5 are expected to return to duty.

I don’t mean to offend any Americans that might be reading this. I’m sure you (an American) would be upset if other UN troups accidently killed or injured your soldiers, right? With all the high tech equiptment available these days you would think something like this would be impossible.

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In other news, I’m sure that just about everyone has heard that Steve Irwin passed away. He’s the Crocodile Hunter if you don’t know him by his real name. As a reptile owner and lover, some of his antics used to upset me. I thought he took too many risky chances with wild animals, and that he might have at times accidently encouraged others to do so, and in doing so this would end up giving reptiles and even worse name in peoples minds. But he was an animal lover, an educator and he had a passion for life that most people never attain. He’ll be missed.

One of my favorite memories of him was from an episode where he was sitting in a sandy area with a small bearded dragon. He was busy telling the view audience that beardies are usually friendly and that they either don’t bite or rarely bite when the little guy jumped up and bit him on the nose. It was hilarious.

You’ll be missed Steve!

And to all the people who have been posting jokes and making fun of his death. Shame on you.