Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest.

[sad sally]

U.S. deaths in drone strike due to miscommunication, report says

Reporting from Washington— A Marine and a Navy medic killed by a U.S. drone airstrike were targeted when Marine commanders in Afghanistan mistook them for Taliban fighters, even though analysts watching the Predator's video feed were uncertain whether the men were part of an enemy force.

Those are the findings of a Pentagon investigation of the first known case of friendly fire deaths involving an unmanned aircraft, the April 6 attack that killed Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, 26, and Navy Hospitalman Benjamin D. Rast, 23.
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The analysts, who communicated with the Predator pilot via a written chat system, were never certain who Smith and Rast were. At one point, the analysts described the pair as "friendlies," but withdrew that characterization a few seconds later. They later wrote, "Unable to discern who personnel were."

Even a written assessment that the gunfire was aimed in the wrong direction was not passed along to the pilot by the Mission Intelligence Coordinator, a crew member responsible for relaying information to the pilot, the report says. The coordinator was a trainee supervised by a trainer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/afghanistan/la-fg-pentagon-drone-20111014,0,6272924,full.story?du

killing - the US has become damn good at it, and every death - frogs included - is justified. :sarcasm:

[emilyg]

1. k