[SBprone]

"in too many cases, if the insurgents bait us and goad us into leveling buildings and homes, the people inside will then hate us (even if they did not before) and we have created more recruits for the guerrillas."

I wasn't aware that there were any residents of Samarra that didn't hate us. If I'm wrong about this then it would be counterproductive to shoot up the place, but if I'm right then it makes sense to instill some fear in the populace.

These are Sunni Arabs. If they hate us already they should fear us as well.

[futureceo31]

Read an article from one of the Iraqi bloggers who discussed this and said that there were 100 or more "insurgents" who had attacked these 2 convoys. I am not able to find the source of the article but does not seem like they were just shooting at civilians...