NewsMax Wires
Friday, April 19, 2002

Daily newspapers, TV stations, radio talk shows and Internet Web sites were swamped with reaction to the so-called "friendly fire" deaths -- Canada's first military casualties in combat since the Korean War.

Four Canadian soldiers taking part in a nighttime live-fire training exercise were killed by an errant U.S. bomb, Pentagon and Canadian officials said Thursday.

A U.S. National Guard F-16 dropped a 500-pound laser-guided bomb on the area near Kandahar where the soldiers were training. Eight other Canadian soldiers were wounded.

The pilot has been grounded while Canadian and U.S. authorities conduct separate investigations.

"I sure hope the pilot is charged with murder," Jan Vallillee wrote on an Internet news site's message board from his home in Canada's Northwest Territory. "This is an American war point blank. We are peacekeepers first and foremost."

While many Canadians praised the country's armed forces for defending freedom, some called on Ottawa to pull its 3,000 soldiers out of Afghanistan.

"We didn't cause this mess," said Dan Dagger, a resident of Alberta, where the dead soldiers were based. "It's the foreign policy of the Americans that caused this mess in New York and Afghanistan. Let the Americans deal with the problem by themselves."

Chantal Hebert, a respected political pundit who writes a column in the Toronto Star, pointed out Canadians' uneasy feelings about Afghanistan were not difficult to notice in Parliament Thursday.

Communications Questioned

Despite the somber mood, opposition critics pointedly asked the Liberal government whether the Canadian troops were properly equipped to communicate effectively with their American counterparts.

"There were doubts in the House of Commons ... about sending our troops in harm's way," Hebert said. "There is now a very day-to-day issue about how our soldiers will be dealt with."

There also were questions about Canadian soldiers' preparedness when historically they are more used to being peacekeepers than combatants. One observer suggested that issue alone may trigger a national debate on Canada's role in Afghanistan.

"We're going to see the finger-pointing start," said Norman Spector, Canada's former ambassador to Israel. "One has to hope the debate will be conducted in a reasonable and civilized manner."

A leading Canadian pollster, however, believes the friendly fire incident may only bolster Canadian support for military action in Afghanistan.

"It reminds us that war is not abstract, it's not surgically precise and it isn't a video game," said Allan Gregg, president of the Strategic Counsel. "It's very sobering."

A poll taken before the tragedy showed Canadians preferred their troops adopt a combat role alongside the Americans rather than act as peacekeepers in Afghanistan by a margin of 2 to 1, he added.

More than 40 U.S. and allied troops have been killed or wounded in Afghanistan since the United States began its campaign Oct. 7. Until this latest incident, only six were non-U.S. coalition troops -- one Australian, two Germans and three Danes.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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