[ruschpa]

I haven't been in the military so this is strictly coming from a civilian... but if a Predator sees insurgents setting up a road side bomb and then they walk away to a house, then I'm assuming it would be pretty dangerous to bomb that house because of the chance of their being civilians inside. From a military perspective, I'm wondering why they wouldn't surround the house instead?

[Mr. Lucky]

A) No appropriate forces in the area, and
B) urban combat is very high risk.

[silverleaf]

if a Predator sees insurgents setting up a road side bomb and then they walk away to a house, then I'm assuming it would be pretty dangerous to bomb that house because of the chance of their being civilians inside. From a military perspective, I'm wondering why they wouldn't surround the house instead?

Who is "they"? Do you really think the controllers of these predators can just call 9-11 and have troops on the ground ready to show up at any house? Plus send over troops to protect those troops while they surround the house of bad guys in a neighborhood riddled with bad guys? Give our guys credit for trying real hard to spare civilians and not fight this war the way Clinton and Weasley Clark "fought" in Bosnia... bombs away! From 35,000 feet.

[brothers4thID]

Because surrounding the house with ground forces and trying to bring only the insurgents out while keeping everyone else alive is a very very dangerous proposition. Insurgents don't have a great big "I'm the bad guy" sign on their backs and then generally don't like to be taken alive. They'd use the innocent as human shields.

Add to that our obsession with keeping death rates low (and thus out of the media spotlight) and it's much safer, for everyone, to bomb the target into oblivion. One miss out of 58 missions and you figure they probably fly 45-70 missions per day with no misses? Those are odds I'd take any day.

[MNJohnnie]

I'm wondering why they wouldn't surround the house instead?

They are solider not cops. They kill them, they do NOT arrest them. It's war. Americans need to wake up to that.