It's important, I think, to emphasize the volume of information in the modern battlespace (note, distinct from battlefield, which implies only two dimensions when the modern situation is very much 3D) and the rate it which it comes to an individual soldier or pilot. This is often discussed but not widely appreciated; as a platoon commander, I typically had only the information available to me that came through my eyes and ears, or was transmitted to me by other members of my platoon or through the radio. As a company commander, a wider span of influence across the battlespace, more subordinates and two radio nets mulitplied the information load, easily, by a factor of ten. I've gone to command larger units (up to battlegroup) in simulation and have had the opportunity to work as Chief of Staff in an operational HQ; the information "flux" just keeps multiplying. Now, I found it hard enough to deal with the rate of movement of myself on foot or in a wheeled or tracked vehicle; I can only begin to imagine what happens when I'm moving through 3 dimensions at hundreds of km per hour.
Frankly, the sheer volume of information sluicing into the military brain as it attempts to not only remain situationally aware, but also make rational decisions in a complex, multi-agency environment is staggering. It doesn't surprise me that mistakes are occurring; if anything does surprise me, it's that there aren't more of them. The fact that a perception develops that the US forces make more such mistakes is, I think, a function of the fact that their personnel, still faced with this amount of info-dump, are also often the ones deploying the greatest amount of immediately lethal force (fast air, attack aviation, PGMs that can target well beyond normal line of sight, fire and forget munitions, etc.). I would suggest that any military personnel of any nation, given the same circumstances, would be just as vulnerable to these sorts of tragic errors.
The solution is better information management. However, that simple statement hides a massive challenge, which is now being addressed by many greater minds than mine. I wish them every success.
