Some top Army officers worry that the findings will overshadow the military’s broader success in reducing friendly fire. Less than 1 percent of soldiers killed so far in Iraq and Afghanistan were victims of fratricide, the official military term for it, compared with 17 percent in Operation Desert Storm, and about 10 percent in Vietnam. Military analysts say part of that success is circumstantial: ambushes and roadside bombings are less complicated than large war maneuvers and cause fewer mistakes. But technology has also been a factor. Many of the Army’s Stryker vehicles, for instance, have onboard computer systems where friendly troops appear as thin blue circles superimposed on a Baghdad satellite map. A NEWSWEEK reporter riding with troops in a Stryker vehicle on a dark night in Baghdad last week could see clusters of U.S. forces on nearby streets. “It tells you where you are, where your friends are and where the enemy is,” Col. Peter Fuller, the project manager for the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said by phone from ground-combat-systems HQ in Detroit. Lower-tech gizmos are also helping. New uniforms issued last year include a patch the size of a postage stamp with a unique infrared signature. Troops who shine a light on the patch from across a hill or from a chopper above can tell the soldiers are friendly–the kind of thing that might have saved Pat Tillman.
