What is cowardly about using good tactics? It's not a game.
If it had really been a "Holy-War" like what they try to make it look like now, the time the Americans got into bagdad, the people would be trying to kill them with everything including guns, knives, rocks, bear hands.
The terrorists are so desperate now, they almost never fire at our Troops, they almost never shoot mortars, instead, they try making IED's that kill civilians that piss them off and get the Civilians on the Americans side. Eventually, after enough of their friends, neighbors, relatives get killed by IEDs and Terrorists, the people will start to do something about it. Thats whats happening now. They're sick of it, they want us gone so they wont get attacked but minding their own buisness wont do them anygood. They're taking action now.