[arjay]

I hope this is not really based on such a petty thing. There seems to be a large difference in culture between the British and American forces.

[Bedford Forrest]

I hope this is not really based on such a petty thing.

So you consider gross insubordination and rank insolence to a senior officer to be "petty"? The punk major should have been stripped of his insignia and horsewhipped, naked. Any questions? BTW, are you with the NY Slimes?

[STD]

Nope, this is just the regular army getting in touch with the SPECIAL Forces. It's always like this. Fancy grandstanders like Collins can't get enough of themselves. The real warriors never speak with such bravado. Collins is an asshole with an overinflated opinion of British culture. Turd World don't you know.

[daddypatriot]

I can speak from experience about idiots who happen to become U.S. military officers. A few dummies always slip through the cracks. I had a couple of jackasses for officers when I was in the Army in the late 1950s. Back then the higher-ups usually sent them packing. The nicest officer I ever met was a major general who had lost his son in Korea. The worst was a lieutenant colonel who came up through the ranks after getting a battlefield commission in World War II. We all cheered when his commission was not renewed. I was told he was sent back to the states to spend his last two years as a master sergeant. I guess that was for pension purposes. He was not only vile and ill-mannered but a complete F....up.

[Tailback]

I hope this is not really based on such a petty thing. There seems to be a large difference in culture between the British and American forces.

If this report is true, then the problem is that this American Major is a dirtbag. This is behavior that wouldn't be acceptable of a PFC let alone a Major. Maybe the reason why this Major was attached to a British unit instead of leading US troops is this type of behavior. Of course, these are just allegations right now, I'm sure we'll know (most of) the truth soon enough.

[joesnuffy]

American troops should not be under the command of Brits and vice versa

nontheless... the order to not throw candy from the trucks was a good one
Saw this in Vietnam...and the kids did get run over from time to time...not to mention
letting kids close makes them able to be used by the enemy to chuck fragmentation grenades det packs or be used as human bombs..

sounds to me like the Brit is just breaking some b*llz...American that is...for him to lock an officer at attention and allow his enlisted personnel to walk past smirking etc...was everybit as wrong as the insubordination..

This should have been taken to the American CO and let him meet out the punishment imo

[Fred Mertz]

Most people know that The Sun is a British newspaper, don't they?

The slant is unsurprising when put in that light.

[gcruse]

There's nothing petty about it, unless you are referring to expectations of poor military bearing being natural to American officers.

[The Red Zone]

This is a story?

[McGavin999]

I'm rather surprised at the Brits picking this up and running with it. It sounds like something the Guardian would do, not the Sun. We need to hear both sides of the story.

This Brit officer is a noble man, I've read of what he's done over there, but I hardly think we're hearing both sides. Sounds more to me like a Special Forces guy running up against a very proper British officer. The fact that he was there on his own tells you that something is different and not quite right about this story.

[marktwain]

It may never even have happened. Here is part of the story from the Telegraph. Notice that there is no mention of an American major:

But the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that he is being investigated by the Army's Special Investigations Branch over a series of allegations that he:

Punched, kicked and threatened captured Iraqis to get information out of them Pistol-whipped an Iraqi town leader, badly gashing his head Fired on the ground to intimidate two Iraqi civilians Issued threats to local civic leaders to get them to comply with his demands Shot the tyres out on a car when there was no threat to allied life All but the last of these fit allegations made by Mr Nasser to an SIB team that interviewed him and his family about two weeks ago.

Mr. Nasser is a Baath party official in Basra. So where are the rumors planted by an American Major??

[Billthedrill]

What utter crap. This is an incident reported by amateurs, given a nationalistic slant, and suggesting behavior on the part of both parties which is so unprofessional as to make me suspect this story on the very face of it. If this went down as reported I have no respect for either officer, Brit or Yank. And I should be happy to tell either one of them to his face.

[Outrance]

I would be very surprised if this story were true.

[Lancey Howard]

Then he humiliated the yank by making him stand ramrod straight for 45 minutes while British squaddies walked past, trying to stifle their sniggers.

LOL, if this bloated egomaniac Collins had tried this with a Marine Corps officer he would have simply been laughed off. And if he didn't like it, he might have been smashed in the mouth.

However....
I don't believe this story for a minute. Am I supposed to believe that this Major was hanging around handing out candy all by himself, with none of his troops or colleagues around? And that he actually allowed himself to be arrested by a Brit Sergeant Major? And forced to stand at attention for 45 minutes while "squaddies" gawked and "sniggered" at him?

Gimme a break.... This is the kind of fabrication you might read in the New York Times.

[faithincowboys]

What I am really starting to resent is the superiority complex of the Brits which was evident even before this incident. Even back in WW2, Montgomery was a arrogant, primadonna. By the way, Audie Murphy was a short man, but a bigger man than anybody the Brits have, and as a Texan he was a bit of a redneck. Also, this "let's not throw the sweets at the kids, they have dignity BS" wasn't even a consideration in WW2, we had bombers dropping chocolate, etc.

What is wrong with the Arabs and their uberfragile self esteem?

Also, we should have no Americans under the command of foreign Armies.

[Aaron0617]

The colonel hit the roof and gave him a withering dressing down.

A Full Metal Jacket - R. Lee Ermey...moment

Would like to have seen this.

[LiteKeeper]

Hmmm? Major now; probably a lieutenant during the Clinton administration. If he is CIMIC, probably a reservist, at that.

Curious!

[Teetop]

I believe the Sun story is crap!

Telegraph story;
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/23/ntim23.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/05/23/ixnewstop.html

More on this story;
http://news.google.com/news?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&edition=&newsclusterurl=www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-12324978,00.html&start=0&sa=N