Quick! Which Hand Is It?

It's a classic left-hand, right-hand situation. But then, one supposes that's an always-present element of war.

Despite modern communication capabilities and technology, people are people and they're obviously not always cognizant of their obligations toward their colleagues. Which wouldn't be so serious if there were not such dreadfully final consequences. Doesn't seem all that complicated, come to think of it. To be aware that you must contact allied troops or friendly entities to inform that you'll be entering their territory.

Lest they mistake your entry for that of the enemy. With predictable consequences. Each side mistaking the other for deadly antagonists and reacting accordingly. There's a rather absurd term for the consequences: "friendly fire". Friend or foe, the end results are the same; someone ends up dead. Sometimes lots of someones. Every war theatre has its casualties resulting from inadequate preparation and communication between allies.

So there we go again. In Afghanistan, where the situation is, in any event, always tense, fraught with danger, and where allied forces battling a hardened insurgency as determined to reach success as the allies are to ensure they will no longer be able to assert control of the country. Consequently, falling victim, time and again, to improvised explosive devices, or lightning attacks by the Taliban.

This time Afghan and international soldiers moved into an area without first informing the area police who naturally enough took them for militants. "An engagement took place, each side thinking the other was the Taliban", explained the deputy governor of the province. And here the international brigades of armed forces are always complaining about the unprofessionalism of the Afghan police.

"Nine police were killed and five wounded" goes the report. After the troops called in air support, and after military attack aircraft arrived to bomb the offending police post. Rather a clumsy way to gain the trust and support of the local police, already hard beset by ever-encroaching Islamist extremists. And of course the U.S.-led coalition forces explained that they and the Afghan forces were acting in self-defence.

That they had inadvertently and "unprofessionally" been responsible for having been fired upon is another story. They saw themselves being attacked by a "non-uniformed hostile force". A wary, fearful yet professionally-reacting force might perhaps be a more accurate description, under the circumstances. Unfortunate as they most certainly were.

"The combined patrol signalled their status as coalition forces, but continued to receive fire" went the report. "Coalition forces then returned small-arms fire and engaged the enemy with precision close air support." So they pounded them into insensibility. Their initial clumsy lack of diligence in informing the police of their intent to enter the area simply handily overlooked, and the crisply bland explanation sufficing for exculpation.

Well, of course, it's not just Afghan police and on occasion Afghan military personnel, but also civilians who quite often fall victim to "friendly fire". As do coalition member-forces, when trigger-happy airmen spotting manoeuvres in an area they're not supposed to even be in, and take the initiative to bomb the hell out of Canadian servicemen. Or, in the case of a British helicopter recently opening fire in Helmand province, injuring nine of their own.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force has been implicated in tragic errors of commission when they interpret wedding parties as insurgent groups and turn rural celebration into utter tragedy. Apologies are swiftly forthcoming, along with the observation that more civilians greet their maker by Taliban attacks than those of the coalition forces. This gives great comfort to the mourners.

Coalition forces admitted to killing eight civilians meant to target militants. Another report has it that 64 civilians were struck dead in two strikes earlier this month. One of these strikes hit a wedding party, turning it into a funeral for 47 people, including the bride; certainly not the first time this has happened. And on it goes. Prevention through care and resorting to respecting their own rules of conduct seems somehow to evaporate in the reality on the ground.

The miasma of war.