The unprovoked U.S. attack on a Pakistani military border post last week occurred due to “errors” by U.S. officers, who allegedly gave the wrong coordinates to Pakistani counterparts when seeking clearance to strike.
A senior Pakistani military officer has claimed that a border co-ordination unit – established to avoid friendly fire between the U.S. and Pakistan – was given incorrect details for the location of a suspected Taliban position.
“The strike had begun before we realized the target was a border post,” he said. “The Americans say we gave them clearance but they gave us the wrong information.” American officials have not denied this story.
The mistake resulted in the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by an American strike, and subsequent chaos for the already precarious U.S.-Pakistan relationship. The U.S. military and political leadership has expressed regret, but has refused to apologize for the accidental killing.
Remember this story which emerged at the time of the attack? What happened to it? Could it be the Afghans are now calling in airstrikes as part of their new training? Is that why we have had a rash of civilian deaths from airstrikes recently as well, including children?
Afghan soldiers called in deadly NATO airstrike http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-soldiers-called-dead…
You'd be amazed how easy it is to call CAS on your own position. REALLY easy. A Marine fire support team on Ft. Sill did it back in 1995 while I was in Field Artillery training.__And once that ordinance is on its way, there ain't no calling it back.
The main "ERROR" is that we are still there. It's obvious that the US no longer knows how to play nice with other countries. We're all taught that if we make a mistake that affects others we apologize. It's simple. If it is true, as Watson suggests above (from an A/P article so nothing is taken at face value), that it was the Afghanis who called in the strike as part of their training then the error made by their "trainers" was not to validate the coordinates. But there are other problems with that story – for another time.
Time to get the hell out of that rat hole. The longer we stay the more opportunity to make things a whole lot worse – for everyone.
The only consideration that matters in regards to a pull-out is "Does is help Obama's reelection effort?"
I love Kipling's comment re soldiering in Afghanistan:
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Roll onto your rifle and blow out your brains,
And go to your Gawd like a soldier.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You mean to tell me that the infallible empire made a mistake? I don't believe it!
so every time they use a robot with a video camera we always get the right people,
but identifying an established military bases of an ally is just to difficult..
Another words one or two officers will take the heat for the Obama team.