Another bad day in Afghanistan

[Gromit]

// At 2.30pm on Wednesday, Corporal Channing Day was on foot patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province when her unit came across an Afghan man wearing ordinary clothes. The man apparently had a weapon and was washing his hands.

Precisely what happened next is shrouded in confusion, but the result was a firefight in which Cpl Day lost her life at the age of 25. While the Ministry of Defence was unable to produce a definitive account of the incident, Afghan officials suggested that the British soldiers, no doubt in a state of heightened alert, had mistaken the man for a Taliban insurgent and opened fire.
In fact, they said, he was an Afghan policeman who had left his checkpoint nearby to clean himself before prayer.

According to one official, the policeman’s colleagues saw him come under attack and returned fire. One source said the British even began firing rockets.

Amid the confusion, three people, Cpl Day, Cpl David O’Connor, a Royal Marine from 40 Commando, and the policeman, were killed. //

It is bad enough to lose lives due to 'friendly fire', but this sounds totally avoidable and a mess.

Have we reach a point in Afghanistan where we are part of the problem, rather than part of the solution?

[anotheoldgit]

Zeuhl

/// perhaps you could point out precisely which part of the OP is 'criticising the British and their troops' ///

It is bad enough to lose lives due to 'friendly fire', but this sounds totally avoidable and a mess[i

[i]Have we reach a point in Afghanistan where we are part of the problem, rather than part of the solution[i]

"Totally avoidable and a mess"

"We are part of the problem"

Seems rather criticising to me.

Interesting to notice the OP chose to ignore my last paragraph, since he is always accusing others of coming to conclusions before they have been found guilty.

[i]And before fingers are pointed in any particular direction let us wait until we hear the findings of any inquiry that may take place, because there is sure to be one]

[anotheoldgit]

I notice that the italics problem has still not been solved.

[Gromit]

AOG

You do not think an incident that see three people on the same side dead with noinvolvement by the Taliban, is a mess? Shooting a policeman by mistake sounds avoidable.

And I see in your dishonesty you have chosen to misquote me as saying "we are part of the problem". I in fact asked a question,

// Have we reached a point where we are part of the problem. //

This was meant to open a debate and the conclusion might have been, "No, we are not part of the problem". Instead you went all daft and started criticising the Daily Telegraph report thinking they were my words, and that not mentioning the corporal until the fourth paragraph was an insult to our troops.

[Zeuhl]

<"Totally avoidable and a mess"

"We are part of the problem"

Seems rather criticising to me.>

aog must be the only person in the country who thinks the situation in Afghanistan isn't a 'mess' or a 'problem'

and i'm still not seeing any explanation of why questioning the wisdom of our presence there is being 'critical of our armed forces'