ON TO BAGHDAD: Friendly fire seems to be the biggest danger so far, and I suspect that there’s a systematic problem in communications involved — though it may be just that the absence of other fire makes it seem so conspicuous. Here’s a UPI story too.

UPDATE on Friendly Fire: Apparently, the British plane didn’t have a working IFF system. Why the hell not?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Gerald Hanner emails:

Sometimes the IFF/SIF goes out in-flight. There are no backups. In addition, there are times when you want to turn off your IFF/SIF to avoid giving the enemy a chance to interogate it themselves. I don’t know what they’re doing in Iraq. In many cases, most of them peacetime, IFF/SIF is not strictly needed. In this case it was sorely needed. I’m wondering what AWACS was doing during all of this.

Me, too.