America bombs Canadians

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I suppose Canada is such a small and insignificant country that this hasn't made anyone else's news - much less the USA's - but last night the United States National Guard dropped two bombs on the Canadian troops in Afghanistan. To be specific, on the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from Edmonton, which includes my friends Kevin and Rochelle. We don't know the names of the dead yet so I don't know if I've lost my friends, but I do know that I am very, very angry.

Canada is not a big country- 35 million people at the last census- but we gave the US everything we could when it was bombed last year. Millions of dollars were sent to the American Red Cross for the families of the victims. Hundreds of our firefighters flew to New York to help deal with the burning wreckage at the World Trade Centre. Our tiny army sent everybody it could spare to Afghanistan to support our southern brothers and sisters. And we are repaid with this deadly carelessness? For shame. We deserved better.

 

I cant say anything to you that will ease up with what ever you are feeling. I just saw that report on the news. They say...

I hope that this does not hurt relations with Canada. Their the only country that still likes us besides England.

 

Actually, Sprite, I just read that myself. From an American news source, no less. And it wasn't buried. It was the headline on CNN.

I do hope your friends are safe and that those hurt make a full recovery.

[Edited to add:]
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/04/18/afghanistan.canada/index.html

It looks like our National Guardsmen were just stupid. It's not like they thought to themselves, "Oh, there're some Canadians down there? Should we worry about where they are? Nah, they're just Canadians."

[This message has been edited by Shralp (edited April 18, 2002).]

 

You think I am an uncaring son of a bitch but PEOPLE DIE IN WAR! Not just the evil enemy but yes the good nice soldiers of the free world too. That is something that every soldier should know, and of course the persons near to the soldiers. No weapon is perfect and no soldier is above making mistakes, so yes sometimes they miss and kill their own troops. Very unfortunate and should be avoided as much as possible but it do happen. We in our northern rich world are horrible upset if even one of our soldiers die but that is what happens in war. If we dont want any casualties we shouldnt go to war. Even if we kill thousands of enemies for every one of ours that die so are some our boys in the fiels going to die if they are in a battle zone, what kills them doesnt really matters. It isnt sling shots they are playing with there.


To Sprite, I sincerely hope that your friends are ok and that no one is hurt. This rant is more generally aimed at our part of the world that expect our soldiers to be perfectly safe in a battle zone.

 

Brings back memories of the Gulf War:

When the Brits fired, the Iraqis took cover, when Iraqis fired the allies took cover, when the Americans fired - everybody dived for cover.

Questions will no doubt be asked regarding blame, but it does beg the question of whether some of these soldiers have the appropriate training to handle both the hardware and the responsibily involved.

 

Im sorry to hear about your friends Sprite i hope they are ok

[This message has been edited by jesper898 (edited April 18, 2002).]

 

joacqin, I don't think anyone can be in the military and not concern themselves with dying or getting hurt. I've known several people who were in wars or in the service and they all worry about death.

It does matter because if it was someone in your family who was accidentally bombed by an ally you would be livid.

I don't condone carelessness. America certainly has it's fair share of stupidity. And that's just what this was. Stupidity.
Shralp is right. Noone set out to bomb the Canadians. That would be asinine and pointless. It is ,however, and unforgivable act of carelessness.

[This message has been edited by Xenecor (edited April 18, 2002).]

 

/me got lost between two countries

I say that your ignorance on something (someone) doesn't mean that something doesn't exist.

So excuse me for dispeling your illusion that outside of your country is nothing but a wasteland to test some nukes on.
Forgive me for my breathing *your* air!

 

No one has such illusions, Extremist. You just like expressing strong opinions for the sake of having them. Bad Extremist!

Our nukes have all been tested on American soil, despite my repeated requests that we test them on Zagreb.

 

I don't know where have you tested your nukes "mister who likes to use plural when talking about himself". Whyt do you think I do with my remote when I see the abb "USA" on TV?

I just know that sulfur rain I'm getting here is not result of *my* actions.
Well, thank you for my nice birthday present. Maybe not nice present, but definetly packed originally.

 

So you admit you're just spouting uninformed nonsense when you make claims about America because you don't even bother reading or listening to news from there.

Acid rain you're getting there isn't a
result of the US either. We send ours to Canada.

 

I heard about this last night, on one of my (filtered) american tv news show, at that. It was an accident, and accidents happen in war. Things like this have happend to american soldiers too, and more things will still probly happen. People take these risks when they join the military.

 

I mostly agree with joacqin. If you go to war, then you prepare to accept the consequences. Even if you're just an ally. And it counts for the innocent people of a country that the war is taking place in too. Sad but true, thus is the nature of war.

There is no way of me knowing, but I would be surprised if in 200 years there is still a United States (if the world can even last another 200 years.) If we keep our shenangins up, someone is going to kick our @$$. Not to sound unpatriotic, but a lot can happen in 200 years, just look back 100 years...

 

First of all Sprite, if your friends are hurt (which I honestly hope they are not) I offer you my condolences. Second friendly fire (especially with the US who use TONNES of heavy artillery in warfare) is not rare. I'm sure most Americans (and Canadians for that matter) who remember the Gulf War probably remember the Apache pilot who inadverdantly attacked an American outpost. He killed his comrades by accident, thinking they were Iraqi's.
I'm not saying it's right, I'm not so happy about it either (and I have no connection to them, other than my father, who happens to be an officer and a pilot in the AF) and I wouldn't be surprised if Bush apologized for the mishap (Chretien would apologize if we acidentally bombed the Americans).

 

Just to add a clarification. This did not occur in or near any action. The Canadians were running routine training exercises in an area strictly designated for training, just outside of a base in Kandahar. This was not a group of ground troops who got caught in a blast when bombs were being dropped on enemy positions. The F-16 that dropped the bomb (or bombs, that part is still inclear) had no business whatsoever in taking this action, and should have realised what territory he was flying over.

 

I cross my fingers that your friends aren't among the dead, Sprite.

Alas, humans aren't machines and we make mistakes from time to time. I sincerly hope that with this incidence everything is done to prevent any further ally firing in this war, although it is a long shot. Any war has casualties, but it is the meaningless ones that hurt the most.

Anyway what is with you BigB it seems more and more of your post are painted dark and sinister for our future. Have a little faith.

And Joacqin, Soldiers are well aware of the death threaths over their heads. In the army it was made clear on many occasions and in many lectures that if we signed for the real warfare in Balkan we shouldn't expect it to be a sweet ride. Even so as med-soldiers we watched numerous videoclips from the medical-barracks down in Balkan where operations took place. Horror movies are like muppet show next to those. So hardly any soldier from denmark or any other country who are down in real warfare, thinks warfare is casualty free.
Perhaps politicians hope and prey it is so. And tell the public... Reality is far from honky dory. Soldiers know that. So waht the public or you think is for that matter irrelevant.

[This message has been edited by ArchAngel (edited April 19, 2002).]

 

I'm really sorry for your friends if they were hurt Sprite. But as someone said: "War is hell." But as Winston Churchill said: "If you're going through hell, you might as well keep going." Still, this conflict in Afghanistan has really gone enough even if the U.S. does capture bin Laden. Do they really think they can stop terrorism by killing him?

 

Ok my two cents worth....

Firstly Joacqin...

As was said earlier, these soldiers were on training grounds. I also wonder, do American soldiers not look or report what and who they are bombing? Or are they given free reign to bomb where and who they feel like. The people responsible for this were obviously too irresponsible or untrained to care to even look or question before taking action.

Shralp.....

Acid rain is a global problem, not just one country is to blame. And of course we do appreicate the pollution you send our way Shralp

 

Blaming other people wont get us any where. Your all turning this in to some kind of odd war. I'm sorry to say this but you all should calm down a little.

 

I guess I should retract my previous statment, I had no idea it occurred within a training zone, that's brutal and pathetic. For those who have died, I guess we can only pray, and remember them (even if we did not know them, we should still pray).