Pte. Robert Costall

Saw this in the Globe and Mail's letters section today and just had to comment:

Can we please stop calling it "friendly fire", asks Lawrence Martin. What's so congenial about it? Killing one of your own is a lot of things. It is negligent, careless, reprehensible, reckless and quite likely idiotic. Since when is it friendly?
Although it is sad a Canadian soldier, Pte. Robert Costall, died in a battle we have to remember he was in a dangerous situation. We also have to remember that friendly fire deaths are not uncommon. War, peace making, and beating off a Taliban night attack does not go like they do in Hollywood. There are no second chances, and there are no directors to tell the soldiers what is going to happen in the next scene.

Death by friendly fire is not new, and will not stop until either we stop sending our soldiers to war, or start to fight war by way of video games.

Pte. Robert Costall was killed along with an American soldier and eight Afghan soldiers as coalition forces beat off a Taliban night attack at a forward operating base near Kandahar. It is more than likely the unit was ambushed on two sides, or moved in between two factions fighting each other and were caught in cross fire.

No, Pte. Robert Costall's death is not something we should be pleased with, but we should not spend hours of second guessing or LazyBoy quarterbacking about the situation.

It is not new, and Pte. Robert Costall will not be the last Canadian soldier to die from friendly fire.
Thank youNorm GreenfieldCalgary, Albertawww.provocostatusquo.com