Brits, jealous of US air powah, bitch about drones, in Brit-like fashion

[Richard Hakluyt]

Re: the US reputation for bombing our own troops/allies, does anyone know if the friendly fire incidents dating back to US involvement in WWII are really statistically much different from our allies' when you calculate based upon the # of incidents divided by # of ground attack sorties flown?

No, they are not much different, from what i have seen.  It is just that no one flies much in the information age except the US.

Having said that, the incidence of FF by US lieutenant colonels in fighter/attack helicopter cockpits is apparently off the scale.

The Brits used to accept without all the whining that FF was a hazard of war.  For example, the RAF started off WW2  with two Spitfire kills.... of two Hurricanes.  Insofar as I know, not a single Brit outside of the slain pilot's family burst into tears.

There was a huge British FF incident in the desert, with hundreds of British soldiers killed.  I believe this was the worst FF case of its kind (exceeding even the three Canadians killed by two American jets in Afghanistan).

The first warship ever sunk by the Luftwaffe was a German destroyer.

I think the problem arises because many people have an anecdotal approach to deaths in the current wars, rather than a statistical one. If we take the Iraq war as an example, the US component of the coalition forces was by far the largest. Perhaps 80% of the shooting was done by the Americans (likely more); if so then we can expect 80% of friendly fire incidents to be performed by the Americans. This wouldn't raise any eyebrows if one was reading a history of the war; but, as we live through it, for every story about Brits or Canadians perpetrating friendly fire there will be four about the Americans. The evidence is clear to an unthinking person, Americans are four times as likely to commit friendly fire cockups as we are.

[Brazen]

Funnily enough I've just finished a feature about counter friendly fire technology and basically came to the conclusion that it's not much cop without support procedures and responsibility throughthe chain of command.

Wiki comes up with the goods detailing incidents from the War of the Roses through to Afghanistan and Iraq. No comparative statistics, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire#War_in_Afghanistan

[Warspite]

What's the complaint? That the British won't develop autonomous drones and will instead remain using human-controlled drones?

That's a weak troll; at least make fun of our bad teeth and obsession with class or something.

[Slargos]

Funnily enough I've just finished a feature about counter friendly fire technology and basically came to the conclusion that it's not much cop without support procedures and responsibility throughthe chain of command.

Wiki comes up with the goods detailing incidents from the War of the Roses through to Afghanistan and Iraq. No comparative statistics, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire#War_in_Afghanistan

It lists the USS Liberty. 

Goddamned JIDF fucktards. 

[Slargos]

Cap Arcona

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Arcona

Hadn't heard of that one. What a monstrous cock-up. 

[grumbler]

Neither the Cap Arcona nor the USS Liberty were friendly fire incidents.  This is wikipedia, folks.  Wiki is the first stop on  the quest for knowledge, not the last stop.

[Slargos]

Neither the Cap Arcona nor the USS Liberty were friendly fire incidents.  This is wikipedia, folks.  Wiki is the first stop on  the quest for knowledge, not the last stop.

I mentioned Liberty precisely because it was not a FF incident as claimed by the article, and the Cap Arcona because I found the scope of it amusing. 

[Alcibiades]

I'm all for the US using more automated drones.

They already do. They are called "soldiers".

Now, the question is whether they should use more intelligent automated drones, like the ones the article is about or stay with the cheaper, less intelligent analog "meat and bones" versions.

To elaborate for the Americans [most of whom will miss the subtle nouances]: You're calling them stupid, right?

Only the tards who end up in the military. Speaking of which, I listen to a comedy radio show based in Chicago (not a gay one), and their view of American soldiers (retards who can't get a decent job) is the same as mine, so it can't be a "cultural divide". There are many Americans who rightly think that people who go into the military (discounting intelligence corps and the like) are largely human trash - which gives me hope.

Surprise, you're still a fucking retard.  And it is a very small nonvocal minority at that.  You see a lot of people at universities getting a degree and going into the military.  I'll be making $60,000 starting out in my FIRST year as an army officer, and in three years it will be $84,000+, guaranteed, full benefits.  How much do you make in Poland again?

Compared to college graduates now, where 45% of graduates are making less than $15,000 a year, seems like a smart choice to me, though maybe a bit harder than fags like you are used to.
(http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/19/higher-education-the-next-asset-bubble/)

TL:DR You're as dumb as ever.

[Razgovory]

Well, in Eastern Europe what Marty says is probably true.  People do their best to escape military service there.  In the United States it is not.  The problem is simply that Marty doesn't understand the 1st world.

[Berkut]

Well, in Eastern Europe what Marty says is probably true.  People do their best to escape military service there.  In the United States it is not.  The problem is simply that Marty doesn't understand the 1st world.

It is an act though - Marty understands just fine. He likes playing the nutbar barely a lawyer hate the US game though. I don't understand *why* he likes it so much, but there it is.

[Razgovory]

Well, in Eastern Europe what Marty says is probably true.  People do their best to escape military service there.  In the United States it is not.  The problem is simply that Marty doesn't understand the 1st world.

It is an act though - Marty understands just fine. He likes playing the nutbar barely a lawyer hate the US game though. I don't understand *why* he likes it so much, but there it is.

I think he's simply dim.

[grumbler]

It is an act though - Marty understands just fine. He likes playing the nutbar barely a lawyer hate the US game though. I don't understand *why* he likes it so much, but there it is.

Dunno.  It could be that the dumb almost-lawyer schtick is the closest he can come to sounding educated and western.  people who have met him tend to say otherwise, but they may be just saving his feelings.

[Caliga]

I listen to a comedy radio show based in Chicago (not a gay one)

Is it the Mancow Muller show?

[garbon]

Surprise, you're still a fucking retard.  And it is a very small nonvocal minority at that.  You see a lot of people at universities getting a degree and going into the military.  I'll be making $60,000 starting out in my FIRST year as an army officer, and in three years it will be $84,000+, guaranteed, full benefits.  How much do you make in Poland again?

Compared to college graduates now, where 45% of graduates are making less than $15,000 a year, seems like a smart choice to me, though maybe a bit harder than fags like you are used to.
(http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/19/higher-education-the-next-asset-bubble/)

TL:DR You're as dumb as ever.

Also, what is he hoping for? Even if most Americans thought that people in the military were stupid - so what?

[garbon]

Dunno.  It could be that the dumb almost-lawyer schtick is the closest he can come to sounding educated and western.  people who have met him tend to say otherwise, but they may be just saving his feelings.

He seemed pretty Western to me.