Whether you do it on the ground, up close and personal, or from an aircraft, or with missiles...the results are the same. Non-combatants die. Either collaterally, or as an effort to pacify the enemy population.
Non-combatants in enemy enclaves should either get out or their own blood is on their hands, or whomever holds them there. Sorry, AP, libs, liberal media, hand-wringers, RINO's, etc... but thatt's the harsh reality of war.
As I recall there were Iraqi soldiers on that operation. Has anyone seen any reports on what if anything they saw?
But .. it's possible that the villagers were being too friendly to the Americans ??
Here's my scenario: A group of villagers were gathered together and held hostage in the house. Our guys came down the street .. the terrorists started shooting at us .. we shot back .. then the terrorists turned and shot all the villagers and ran out of the house screaming that the Americans shot all the people .. does that about cover it ..??
And .. what tipped me off .. all of a sudden this statement was made .. "it was women and children and old people". Hmmmmm?? Now .. where have I heard that before .. oh yeah, when we bombed several terrorist hideouts at the beginning of the war (because they were shooting at us), and they all claimed it was a wedding party and there were "women and children and old people".
The whole incident stinks to high heaven .. and I believe this was a set-up from the beginning.
You know how Rush has made a point of showing how the terrorists are always repeating the democrat talking points? Well .. what have the dems been saying, "bring the troops home now". What better way to make that happen ... discredit our military and then the terrorists can march in protests in the street (like they see the dems do) and DEMAND THE NEW IRAQI GOVT FORCE THE USA TO GO HOME.
[end of story]
Like I said, it was a setup from the beginning.
The insurgents understand one thing well.
They cannot beat us in a stand up fight. They are not that unobservant.
The tradition of armies using uniforms is because they want to avoid civilian casualties. Agincourt, Flanders, Thermople and thousands of battles were waged away from civilians by clearly defined armies that as warriors wished to seperate the battle from the civilian population.
If you kill our troops, run into a civilian area and try to blend in, don't be shocked when women and children are killed.
If you respect your holy place, don't fund, feed and offer santuary to militants from your mosques. We should JDAM your hand-wiped ass if you do. We will have to live in fear of the UN response afterwards, but in order to make an omlette, first you have to break some eggs. Hide your militants inside your mosque? Don't be surprised to find a well done Mosque Mc Muffin in the morning.
If they execute enough civilians and blame it on Marines, Army, Iraqi police units, they can stalemate us into a loss.
They understand that if they can beat 51% of our electoral college votes in a media war they will win. America will cower and hide, hoping for the best and blaming all future attacks on Bush. If only he had understood the middle east and the fact that they have the right to behave in a militaristic, mysoginistic war of terror on any civilization that escaped the 9th century.