It seems we have all the trouble we need shooting or bombing ourselves.
I don't care how many sorties we put in the air or on the ground it is inexcusable for us to kill our own people.
If we say that a certain percentage of casualities is to be expected due to enemy action, is this also true as a result of friendly fire?
This is unacceptable with the technology we possess!!
Heck, the 3rd ACR wasn't able to train at McGreggor Range during peace time without killing a couple of troopers each time when they were stationed at Ft. Bliss.
My military career was cut short by an M-60 tank accident at Ft. Hood that broke my back and hospitalized me for six weeks, so I know just a little bit about what I am talking about.
Military service is all about "killing people and breaking things". You can't do this without subjecting your troops to some risk of death and injury.
Incidents like the ones you mentioned are EXTREMELY rare. Considering all the flights, all the actions we are involved in, I'd say our military is doing a pretty damn good job.
Right now, lets not point fingers, but support our commrades in arms?
I'm hoping that your just reacting emotionally (as we all are) to the news that some of our service members are in trouble. Perhaps they have even just given the ultimate sacrifice. So let us respect the moment and not write things like that. It doesn't serve them very well. Historically, even in WWII, we took friendly fire. The stats are much less these days then they were during other conflicts. So with all due respect, lets not go there?
I think that all considered, our casualties so far in this war have been astonishingly low.
It's a dangerous business to be in, serving in the military, but unless there is a war or other 'military action' going on, the press NEVER reports on these deaths.
We lose more than 40,000 people/year to auto accidents. BTW the B-1B uses 1970's technology. Your basic IBM PC running DOS with 640K memory is more up to date and has more memory than the computer that does the bombing on the B-1B.