Obama lands in Wales

Apparently we had a similar problem without the racial undertones.
From an article in one of our newspapers. No details given.

Woodruff dissects the accepted wisdom that US forces suffered chronically low morale and that "fragging", the murder of officers by rolling grenades into their tents, became a problem. Pure myth. Of the 58,183 Americans killed in the war, 84, or 0.14 per cent, were "fragging" deaths, lower than the "fragging" rate in the Australian forces in Vietnam, where it was never perceived as a problem.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/29/1056825276660.html
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No idea how many Aussies died this way. We had a lot less troops over there.
 
Most of these young black soldiers were draftees as many young whites hid out in college or even got married to duck the war--Dick Cheney had seven deferments as I recall, six for staying in college right into graduate school and when that ran out he got married!
 

Justme, these things do happen.
I had never heard of this but I've just found a reference to similar events with Aussie troops in Vietnam.

Vietnam War (Australian forces):
  • On 23 November 1969, Lieutenant Robert Thomas Convery of the 9th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment was killed when a grenade exploded while he was sleeping in his tent at Nui Dat, South Vietnam. Private Peter Denzil Allen was convicted of Convery's murder and served ten years and eight months of a life sentence in Risdon Prison.[SUP][13][/SUP]
  • On Christmas Day 1970, Sergeants Allan Brian Moss and John Wallace Galvin were shot dead and Sergeant Frederick Edwin Bowtell injured when Private Paul Ramon Ferriday opened fire with his rifle into the Sergeant's Mess of the Royal Australian Army Service Corps at Nui Dat, South Vietnam after an all-day drinking session. Ferriday was convicted on two counts of manslaughter and one of assault with a weapon, and served eight years of a ten-year sentence.[SUP][14][/SUP]
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Yes, these things do happen, just consider the My Lai massacre. Also, having spent some time in the Philippines during the Cold War I saw racism on all levels which makes me believe that the black troops in Vietnam did not like the racism that they saw and didn't want to die in the white man's war...
 
Dame Warrigal said:
Apparently the rate of these incidents in Iraq was very low and is attributed to an all volunteer army.
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When our son was in Iraq, I quizzed him on his thought of the officer corps. I knew that there was significant dissent, distruct, and angst between enlisted and officers in Viet Nam. Our son was quite complimentary of today's officers. Understand that deployment was with the 82nd Airborne, one of the elite fighting divisions in the world. I do believe the transition from draftees to all volunteer has helped change the perception of fellow soldiers.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
I'm hearing war drums beating, and not just in the Middle East. :distress:
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Respectfully, I'm not nearly as pessimistic as some. I believe the three big powers... U.S., Russia, and China... all understand what war between any two of the three would mean to their economies. The USSR went down due to economic problems, not bombs and missles. I don't believe Putin wants to go that route again.
There will be posturing. There will be finger shaking and tough talk. I don't see it going any further than that.

The much bigger threat is that of radical Islam. Russia, China, Europe, Africa, Middle East... Not one place in the world is exempt from terrorist activity of jihadists. The Middle East and North Africa have already been pretty well taken over by the radicals. They have found their barbaric behaviour gains them footholds that they use to take over large geographic regions.

The larger powers need/want/enjoy petroleum resources from the Islamic countries and don't want to cut those ties. As more and more Americans, Europeans, Asians, Austrailans, etc. are tortured and beheaded by the likes of ISIS that is where we will see WWIII. It will be the World against Islam. By that time, the cancer of the jihadists will have spread to the vital areas of countries all over the world. And, until the "civilized" world is ready to become just as ruthless as the jihadists... they win. Many innocents will be lost before someone decides it is either wipe the radicals off the map or suffer their inhuman cruelty.

Sheesh! And I said I wasn't as pessimistic. I'm not, when it comes to Russia and China. I am worried about the long term results of allowing the likes of ISIS to continue gaining ground.
 

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