>>U.S. and British troops Thursday freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a shot, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street. << This is another one that calls for a bit of Kipling . . . "I was a shepherd to fools Causelessly bold or afraid. They would not abide by my rules. Yet they escaped. For I stayed." (Epitaph of a Convoy Escort)

i've listened to bits of radio chatter from british troops on the news as well and it's generally quite different in tone. the brits tend to sound like its another day at the range for them. the cultural difference is quite pronounced.

Just wanted to say thanks for passing along the news and i'm sorry to hear that Fox was murdered.

Ehran, Are these tapes of pilots on bombing runs? helicopter pilots on strafing runs? soldiers in the middle of the fighting? commanders or staff discussing contact? Depending who's on the net, you can have a whole different tone and level of excitement. Heck, I had a squad leader while I was a platoon who sounded like he always had rounds impacting near him, and that was on blank fires. On the other hand, I know that I would get comments from the 1SG on occasion about how calm and steady I would speak over the net (sometimes this would require a conscious effort, though). So, there is a large personality component that drives this as well. Also, as Albany Rifles pointed out, what net you are speaking makes quite a bit of difference as well. Were these squad internal nets? platoon internal? company internal? battalion or above? In the end, it seems as if you are trying to put way too much stock into inferences from a handful of videos clips/sound bites. There will certainly be a cultural difference, where a Brit will tend to understate a situation, but I don't think that cultural differences can overcome subconscious human psychological responses.

You're very welcom. It is sad that Fox died, but these people put themselves foolishly in harms way, so it is a win that any of them got out alive. Their organization seems to not have mentioned that they were save by the military in their press releases.

Many people have been putting in Kipling verse so I thought I would share my favourite lines which I reckon can be applied today. "Whatever happens, we have got. The gattling gun, and they have not."

AJ, That is one of my favorite lines. Simple, yet brutal. My professor for my Strategy and Policy course, which covered some of the major art of war philosophers and a survey of warfare, used to start off every class with some war poetry. It's quite amazing how well poetry can capture the essence of things. The book he recommended to get was the following: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192804545/ref=wl_it_dp/002-6172701-9743256?%5Fencoding=UTF8&colid=3BV4R4OFS2ZIM&coliid=I1VHS6UVB8EFBK&v=glance&n=283155

the news here is reporting they were lifted by sas and jtf2 (canuck version of SAS) guys out of the house but that no one was home except the hostages. it almost sounds like the swords decided to give them up but didn't want to be seen as wusses by the rest of the nutters for doing so.

My guess is we bagged the head guys and the other hoodlums knew what was coming and so they got out of Dodge!

>>the news here is reporting they were lifted by sas and jtf2 (canuck version of SAS) guys out of the house but that no one was home except the hostages.<< It was reported over here as the story was breaking that US military (CAG one assumes), UK military (SAS one likewise assumes) and "Canadian law enforcement" (Mounties with dog sleds?) did the recovery. At least that was the story that was being put out on one of the news channels yesterday morning while I was at the gym. Could just be that the Canadians pulled a better bit of opsec than everyone else, though . . .