South by Southwest: Misnomer

Accurate terms - Yesterday's S/Sw post was about the importance of using the right words to describe events. Today I am continuing with my thoughts, writing about the term "friendly fire." Wikipedia's entry is a good starting point. The writer makes my point for me. I quote,

Some prefer the term fratricide over friendly fire, because they deem the latter to be an unfitting euphemism exemplified by the aphorism
"there's nothing friendly about getting shot by your own side." However, the origin and purpose of the term is as a simple distinction to enemy fire. Both terms serve only to identify the source of an attack as coming from enemy (hostile) or friendly forces and not the nature of an attack.

Recent tragedy - Yahoo!News reported that NATO soldier died recently in Afghanistan from so-called "friendly fire." The term used is the opposite of "hostile fire." "Fratricide" is related; the term originally meant "killing one's brother." Quoting the (9/4/06) story,

One NATO soldier was killed by friendly fire and several were wounded on Monday during a major offensive to crush a resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
The troops were strafed by two of their own warplanes after calling in air support during a battle at close quarters with Taliban fighters in Kandahar province, the alliance said in a statement.

Pat Tillman's story - In 2004 the well-known football player, Pat Tillman, was probably killed by friendly fire, according to this CNN.com story, from which I quote:

"While there was no one specific finding of fault, the investigation indicated that Cpl. Tillman probably died of friendly fire while his unit was in combat with enemy forces," Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger Jr., of the Army's Special Operations Command, said at a news conference at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
"The results of this investigation in no way diminish the bravery and sacrifice of Cpl. Tillman," Kensinger said. "Cpl. Tillman was shot and killed while responding to enemy fire without regard to his personal safety."

The phrase "friendly fire" is a terrible term. It is a contradiction in terms. How do you suppose families feel knowing that it was the cause of the death of their loved one? Pat Tillman's brother served with him in the same unit. He could not comment on the event, but their mother Mary was quoted in the last of a three-part series (12/8/04) about the accident in the Seattle Times. To quote,

(Senator) McCain said Sunday that questions raised by Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, about how the Army handled the case led him to meet twice earlier this fall with Army officers and former acting Army secretary Les Brownlee to seek answers. About a month ago, McCain said, Brownlee told him the Pentagon would reopen its
investigation.
When she learned friendly fire had taken her son's life, "I was upset about it, but I thought, 'Well, accidents happen,' " Mary Tillman said in a telephone interview Sunday. "Then when I found out that it was because of huge negligence at places along the way — you have time to process that and you really get annoyed." . . .
The Army acknowledged only that friendly fire "probably" killed Tillman when
Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr. made a terse announcement May 29 at Fort Bragg,
N.C. Kensinger declined to answer further questions and offered no details about
the investigation, its conclusions or who might be held accountable.

Army's shameful handling of the investigation - There must be a tremendous amount of shame following a so-called friendly fire incident. Those who made the mistake may or may not tell the truth about it. In the case of Pat Tillman, many of the subsequent actions made it much worse. Following is the USA Today story about the family's reaction to the Army's handling of the investigation into Tillman's death. Quoting from the (5/25/05) story,

The family of former NFL player Pat Tillman says the Army disrespected his memory by lying in its investigation of his death in Afghanistan last year.
By Mike Haskey, Columbus Ledger Enquirer via AP
In interviews with The Washington Post, the Army Ranger's mother and father said
they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country.
"Pat had high ideals about the country; that's why he did what he did," Mary Tillman told the Post. "The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a
sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting." . . .
The separate interviews with Tillman's parents, who are divorced, appeared on the Post's Internet site for Monday's editions.
Patrick Tillman Sr., a lawyer, told the Post he is furious about a "botched homicide investigation" and blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.
"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," the father said. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

Unintended consequences of war - Recent wars in the Middle East have all kinds of unintended consequences. First, the loss of thousands and thousands of civilian lives in Iraq, Israel and Lebanon was in some respects not intended by the combatants. In a way that "collateral damage," another misnomer, is another example of "friendly fire."
Cluster bombs- Second, when cluster bombs are dropped there are terrible unintended consequences. Because of a high failure rate, many of the bomblets do not explode. Thus deaths do not come about until later when a noncombatant picks up one of them, or when a member of the same armed forces that originally dropped them accidentally encounters one of them. Fortunately, Senators Leahy and Feinstein have introduced an amendment to the currently debated Defense bill that attempts to mitigate these terrible consequences.
I'll write more on the cluster bomb issue in tomorrow's blogpost. Senator Feinstein's speech about it was very sobering, and hardly anything has been written about it. (The Jewish Daily Forward is the only reference I found in my search for the amendment story.)

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