We have now killed 18 civilians and 5 taliban. What the hell are we doing?
Personally, I question the use of the term: "civilians". In one case, where 12 died, the Marines were taking fire from a location that was then flattened by air. Those 12 were inside that location, along with the terrorists. Who were these 12? Human shields? Aiding and abetting the terrorist's? We don't know - so journalists assume that they were "innocent bystanders" in all of this to rack up the casualty count on our side. All we know is that they were in the same room as the others we have identified as Taliban and the Taliban were firing on us.
We returned fire. Its that simple.