US military terrorizes ordinary Iraqis

db: What do you do when a suspected insurgent runs into the home of a family of 14 for cover? Don't think twice - call in some'precision guided' munitions and flatten the building - serving two purposes 1. Eliminate the enemy 2. Terrorize Iraqis into cooperating with the occupation/not cooperating with the insurgents.

asiatimes: Precision killing in Iraq

... Though Bush administration officials and top US military officers often, for propaganda purposes, refer to local residents as innocent victims of insurgent intimidation and terrorism, their disregard for the lives of civilians trapped inside such buildings is symptomatic of a very different belief: that most Sunni Iraqis willingly harbor the guerrillas and support their attacks - that they are not unwilling shields for the guerrillas, but are actively shielding them. Moreover, this protection of the guerrillas is seen as a critical obstacle to our military success, requiring drastic punitive action.

As one American officer explained to New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, the willingness to sacrifice local civilians is part of a larger strategy in which US military power is used to "punish not only the guerrillas, but also make clear to ordinary Iraqis the cost of not cooperating". A marine calling in to a radio talk show recently stated the argument more precisely: "You know why those people get killed? It's because they're letting insurgents hide in their house." Read more