The escalation worries some about an increase in "collateral damage," casualties among Iraqi civilians. Air Force generals worry about wear and tear on aging aircraft. But ground commanders clearly like what they see.
"Night before last we had 14 strikes from B-1 bombers. Last night we had 18 strikes by B-1 bombers," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said approvingly of air support his 3rd Infantry Division received in a recent offensive south of Baghdad.
Statistics tell the story: Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped 437 bombs and missiles in Iraq in the first six months of 2007, a fivefold increase over the 86 used in the first half of 2006, and three times more than in the second half of 2006, according to Air Force data. In June, bombs dropped at a rate of more than five a day.
My first question is, who are they bombing?
From everything that I read the "enemy", and I use that term loosely, are living among the regular Iraqi citizens. If you have somebody "bad" living in the same building as innocent Iraqis how could you use a bomb to take them out without slaughtering dozens of innocent people?
Or do we now just assume that all Iraqis are the enemy?
It just seems completely insane to me to, on the one hand talk about building a partnership with the Iraqis, and then on the other treat them as if they are all expendable in the campaign to kill the "bad guys".
No wonder Maliki wants us out.
P.S. The very next news story I read after writing this post was this one. Which had this chilling quote:
"I don't see it as an execution, sir," he told the judge. "I see it as killing the enemy."
He said Marines consider all Iraqi men part of the insurgency.
This was in response to being asked about American soldiers killing an innocent Iraqi man and planting an AK 47 on him.
the enemy is a bogus term...and we all know it...just like they say they bombed terrorists- WHAT? and how do they know that.
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