'FRIENDLY FIRE' is an oxymoron of warfare which has been highlighted by the war in Iraq. The phenomenon was given full expository treatment in a piece by our own Lloyd Williams in this week's Sunday Gleaner.
This was prompted mainly by the well-publicised instances of the unintended fatalities suffered by the American-led coalition forces which have ousted the Saddam Hussein regime.
The accidental killings have been reported perhaps because of the abundant media coverage - both by "embedded" reporters and the televised coverage.
That kind of coverage was not available at the time when Cuban's Castro was a would-be target of American designs. As it has now come to light Jamaica could have been a victim of "friendly fire" if the sub rosa machinations of secret intelligence had borne fruit.
In the same manner that "special forces" operate ahead of the regular infantry and armoured columns in Afghanistan and Iraq, civilian intelligence operates in a nether world with minimum publicity.
The account as carried by an American writer of some renown has not been contradicted, as far as we are aware; which is perhaps how these matters are routinely ignored.
It reminds us of the frequent protestations by the Michael Manley administration in the 1970s about CIA interference when his friendship with Fidel seemed headed for some mountaintop.
These are friendlier times, however, despite policy differences over the invasion of Iraq.
