There are definitely pros to the use of airstrike bombings and precision guided missiles in Iraq. Airstrikes allow our air force to attack key enemy targets without risking the lives of our troops, and "can destroy the target of our commander's choosing, and minimize collateral damage, which is such an all encompassing term; the risk to innocent life," says former chairman of the Pentagon Defense Policy Board Richard Treadway.
But as former Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche put it, "The single hardest target of all is a single human being." The validity of airstrikes is put into question when we consider the civilian casualties that have resulted from these bombings.
The U.S.'s airstrike that instigated the Iraq War was on Dora Farm, a "leadership headquarter" our intelligence thought contained Saddam Hussein. These strikes did not hit their intended target, and instead either missed or hit nearby residencies.
A doctor working at a nearby hospital commented, "Honestly, what we saw the first day of the war astonished us, and most of us doctors were in a state of anger. There were shrapnel injuries to woman and children...all of them civilians."
Airstrikes are effective against enemies in a conventional war where destroying enemy bases and communication centers are key. But airstrikes in a guerrilla war inside a civilian environment, where faulty intelligence may result in the loss of innocent lives, is counterproductive to winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis and our goal of a stable Iraq. What results is outrage from the civilian populace, who will continue terrorism only because terrorism will have more credibility than the United States.
Granted, airstrikes have produced some positive results, such as the killing a leadership member of Al Qaeda, Aby Musab al-Zarqawi. But the prevalence of these airstrikes have provided varied outcomes. In February 2008, an overnight air raid on an Iraqi village resulted in the accidental death of three members of the American-backed Sunni Awakening.
"It was the third incident in a month. We have lost 19 men while 12 have been injured because of coalition attacks," according to their tribal leader Sabah al-Janabi.
The only alternative to targeting enemy combatants would be to send ground troops into suspected enemy combatant territory. But though airstrikes will save U.S. troops at the expense of the accidental death of Iraqi civilians, ground troops may save the death of Iraqi civilians at the expense of our troops.
There are no easy choices in this war, with both situations guaranteeing the death of either innocent Iraqis or our soldiers. Gah, I don't think there is a way I could cop out of this one.
