... The fact that they did so confirms the opinion that the US will not recklessly target civilian areas so as to avoid unnecessary casualties. They in effect attempt to use a "safe zone" to avoid damage to their military assets. A rather cowardly way to use a human shield for their military to hide behind.
Is this an appropriate miltary tactic? Not to western thought.
Terrorists have no concern about civilian casualties. It has already been reported that bin ladin considers ALL Americans to be a target. We do not do the same and will not conduct our operations in that manner. That will not stop terrorists from hiding in and among civilian areas. We will be as careful as we can but we will not be able to choose the hiding places for them.
A comfy thought but how true is it?
http://www.deoxy.org/wc/wc-myth.htmI know this is a dreadful lefty site, and I have no idea whether it's factual or not but I'd guess that the truth will be somewhere in between their rant and the US government's version.
However:
A bombing campaign where you're 99% sure you will miss the target and hit civilians, but you do it anyway sounds suspiciously like the sort of thing the bombings were supposed to stop...
I think the US should persue a legal course of action rather than a military one.
The military payback route appears not to have helped Israel much, nor the UK in Ireland, and there is a very real danger of creating many more extremists and terrorists by missing the target with one stray bomb (which happens) than you destroy. Any speeches from the US afterwards along the lines of "Ooops, sorry we didn't mean it, but they were using you guys as a human shield", is not likely to be answered with a "Oh well, seeing as you didn't mean it... that's alright then." Imagine the situation in reverse... "Sorry about blowing up the High School, we were aiming for the Army base, honest."
After watching that horrendous waste of lives in New York, I think
any more civilian casualties of any nation are totally and utterly unacceptable. That's my 2 cents.
