Blue-On-Blue

The general public here in the UK seem to have no idea about what war is really like. Listeners to BBC Radio 5 Live keep phoning / texting in to voice their dismay over the "friendly fire" incidents that seen to strike British troops every day in Iraq.

Blue-on-blue fire is not a new phenomenon. Desert Storm, The Falklands, Korea and Vietnam, WWII... every modern conflict has had its share of accidents.

If you go back further -- to the Napoleanonic Wars or American Civil War -- there are records of whole infantry units being cut down by their own artillery or fellow infantry. The literal fog of war in these conflicts contributed to the tragedies.

When the men who pull the trigger are in combat, they are pumped on adrenaline, full of fear and excitement, scared of death and acting on instinct and programmed responses from repetitive training. When the thunder and confusion of battle arrives and they are forced to make split-second decisions on matters of life and death -- to ensure their own, and their comrades, survival -- mistakes in target indentification are impossible to prevent.

Modern warfare has its own fog of war. In Iraq our troops do not distinguish themselves from the enemy by wearing redcoats -- friend and foe look alike. The blood and thunder of artillery and gunfire is still present. The dust, smoke and black of night, concealing the people in the field, are still there. Adrenaline and fear still pump through the veins.

The people who have contacted Radio 5 Live, insinuating that the MoD and the US military are gung-ho, negligent idiots, who should be brought to account for the disgraceful "avoidable" blue-on-blue casualities, need to get themselves a reality check.


I recommend a few games of paintball, where you will soon discover that you are just as likely to be tagged by your own side as by the enemy.

It is a testament to the training, bravery, responsibility and restraint of both UK and US forces, that more "friendly-fire" incidents haven't happened.