Seems most of the posters here are merely disappointed that more were not killed or maimed. If God is 'on the side of' bloodthirsty barbarians who revel in, or attempt to disparage ANY spilling of innocent blood, I want no part of this 'god' they worship.
Meanwhile, as grief walks the frozen hills of Afghanistan, OBL or whomever was responsible for 9/11 walks free.
If it comes to that, these poor folks could be rich if they just turned obl in . . .
But seriously, the idea of labeling military volunteers as "coward" is a bit wierd; military uniforms are after all symbolic body bags. But nobody wages war by making sure they don't have any advantage over the opposition; rather they reckon that "all's fair in love and war." And try to pick on people who they can defeat.
The declining cost of electronics means that "dumb" bombs are becoming passe; if you think you can actually hit the spot you're aiming for you can be relatively aggressive using your bombs in an effort to defeat your foe. Trouble is, sometimes your weapon proves to be pretty stupid, and sometimes you just are going to be wrong about where you should want the bomb to hit.
But the idea of standing and fighting in line of battle went out with the musket; if the other guy doesn't stand up and fight you're a fool not to duck yourself--and the guy in the fortress took advantage of the cover he had to shoot at people who couldn't easily shoot back, and that traces all the way back to Jerico, at least.
Even caves now offer only superficial protection if your position is accurately reported to the USAF and you are considered a significant target. It is well known by now that our aversion to inflicting civilian casualties is the primary defense against our Air Force and Naval air arm, so use of civilians as human shields is a primary defensive measure if you cannot defeat the Air Force itself.
I think of the cry of the Greek defender when he saw that the Roman catapault made it impossible to man a critical post without being killed--"human valor no longer avails!" The whole complaint boils down to the fact that the Taliban was outgunned. Everything else follows.