... not so friendly ...

'Friendly Fire' is not a term I like. It is the accidental killing of your own side by 'cock up'. In the coming war with Iraq - and let's not play games - George Bush - wants a war - and by George he'll get his war - and it will be in February 2003. For reasons best know to himself - Tony Blair wants Britain to pay the 'blood price' - ie he wants our troops to be involved - probably the only supporting nation.

However the British army - that is the army of the fourth richest country in the world - I repeat fourth richest - does not have the basic equipment to fight this war. We can't even sort out decent boots for our troops. As part of this regime of neglect there appears to have been no co-coordinated attempt to use technology and develop systems to avoid the unnecessary accidental death of our ground forces.

Lt-Col Andrew Larpent had 9 men killed and 12 wounded in a 'friendly fire' incident on the second day of the Gulf War. His men mistaken for Iraqi units - were in the right place rounding up prisoners - when two of his armoured vehicles were hit by missiles from an American A10 Tankbuster.

Lets not start looking around for who to blame. War is unpredictable - and people have to make split second decisions. In my life as a lecturer - making a mistake about the timetable - or getting someone's name wrong - was easy rectified. I have never had to make a one second decision on pressing a missile button - while facing the possibility of being shot at or targeted by a missile. Robust 16 - 19 year olds can be challenging - but not life threatening.

In Lt-Col Larpent's interview with BBC radio this morning - he stated that the main defence against accidental attack are identification signs stuck of the roofs of military vehicles. He also points out that military aircraft have electronic equipment which identifies friend from foe. However Britain with its inadequate 30 year old communications system has not got any systems for electronically identifying vehicles or fighting units. So it looks like orange stickers and sticky-back tape will be all that protects our troops.

Therefore Tony Blair is right in saying Britain will pay the 'blood price'. It will pay it in unnecessary deaths and injury of our soldiers and marines when he sends our troops into the Iraqi battle zone. The people responsible for the deaths will all be sitting in offices - accumulating points of their very generous pensions - and will never be brought to account.