Actually they would have and that is why news about these intentional civilian killing bombings was suppressed in our media completely at the time. Our WWII wartime propaganda on our Bombers stressed how they only went after "military" targets while a huge debate raged within the Army Airforce and our government on wether "morale" bombing against civilians was effective or did it create more hostility and even more resistance? The answer is yes- such targeting of civilians actually stiffened German Wermacht resistance against our troops in the final months of the war and most likely got a lot of our troops killed. Not to mention the countless airmen ripped to shreds upon landing in their parachutes by enraged German civilians (actually even French, Dutch, Belgian, and Italian civilians were said to have killed American bombers crew who parachuted into areas in which large numbers of civilians had been killed by our bombs).
By the way. Goebbels called our bombing of civilian targets "terror bombing". We called it "morale bombing"? Whose term is more accurate in light of recent events?
As to this story? Fog of war. Who knows what happened but I highly doubt American troops killed civilians intentionally. I also highly doubt we killed 46 to 54 insurgents in that fight either since we don't have one body to back it up. Unless some new info has emerged.
"Civilians" who support a murderous regime during wartime are fair targets. This is how lessons are learned. Although I agree that it might have cost more Allied lives up front, the peace that was won has lasted generations.
I don't hear any Japanese or Germans screaming "Death to America!" (except for their wacko left. Same as here). In fact, just the opposite. Both of those countries have been blasted into extreme pacifism.
Tikrit, and any other Sunni cesspool should be flattened. If the attacks continue, keep flattening. Muslims understand savage, brute force even more than the Germans or the Japanese.