US Military now admits it attacked mosque but says they did it as a "warning". Was the warning that they would kill civilian's and then lie about it?

The U.S. military was trying to send a "little reality jab" to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr when American and Iraqi troops raided a Shiite community center and shrine over the weekend, says a top U.S. military official.

The joint assault killed at least 16 people, most of them believed to be tied to Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army. U.S. officials insist the center was being used as a base for insurgent activities and was not a mosque. But many Iraqis say the complex did indeed include the Shiite equivalent of a mosque, and the raid has drawn harsh condemnation from Shiite politicians and prompted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to launch an investigation.

The mayor of Baghdad promptly cut off cooperation with the U.S. Embassy, and Shiite politicians suspended their negotiations to form a new government. The U.S. military has long contemplated taking tougher steps against Sadr and his troublesome militia but has held off in the past because it did not want to antagonize his many fervent supporters. This raid, officials say, was intended as a reminder to Sadr of the U.S. military's reach in Iraq.

So it appears that we no longer give two shits about our integrity as it applies to the Iraqi people. I am completely flummoxed by this incident and all of the tapdancing that our military did in response to the allegations put forth by the Shi'ite victims of this raid.

In the end the Iraqi's were proven to be right and we were caught in a lie. It seems as if we were either completely unaware of how we are being perceived by the Iraqi's or we just don't care what they think anymore. Have we just given up on capturing their hearts and minds?

Every move our military makes seems to create more enemies for us to fight. Is that the plan? To keep this war going as long as possible? I am so damn confused.