Monday, September 04, 2006

Does CTV think "friendly fire" IS friendly?

Some media outlets do it right. They use quotation marks to clarify the unfitting euphemism "friendly fire" that has been adopted by the military for these type of deaths.

Not CTV. They don't seem to care about these things.

They don't see that there's nothing "friendly" about getting shot by your own side. It's as deadly as enemy fire, and, to be quite franky, pretty stupid. Why not change it to "stupid fire"?

Anyways, the U.S. seems to have a "friendly" report on "friendly fire".
Here are some, not so friendly, numbers, representing percentages of deaths through "friendy fire" (source: Wikipedia)
* World War II: 21,000 (16%)
* Vietnam war: 8,000 (14%)
* Gulf War: 35 (23%)
* Invasion of Afghanistan (2002): 4 (13%) **

Read also What the hell is friendly fire? by Scout.

**note: fatalities were Canadian Soldiers, not American. Caused when a US fighter pilot dropped a 500 lb (228 kg) bomb while Canadian soldiers were performing a live fire exercise on April 17, 2002 [1]

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