Precision killing in Iraq (150 + air attacks A DAY)

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA13Ak01.html


-snip-

One reason the Hopkins study did not generate sustained outrage is that the researchers did not explain how the occupation had managed to kill so many people so quickly - about 1,000 each week in the first 14 months of the war. This may reflect our sense that carnage at such elevated levels requires a series of barbaric acts of mass slaughter and/or huge battles that would account for staggering numbers of Iraqis killed. With the exception of the battle of Fallujah, these sorts of high-profile events have simply not occurred in Iraq.

Mayhem in Baiji
But the Iraq war is a 21st-century war and so the miracle of modern weaponry allows the US military to kill scores of Iraqis (and wound many more) during a routine day's work, made up of small skirmishes triggered by roadside bombs, sniper attacks and US foot patrols. Early this month, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported a relatively small incident (not even worthy of front-page coverage) that illustrated perfectly the capacity of the US military to kill uncounted thousands of Iraqi civilians each year.

-snip-

As a consequence, when US F-14s, helicopter gunships or other types of aircraft arrive, their targets are larger and more dispersed. Liquidating guerrillas can then require the "precise" leveling of several buildings (with "collateral damage"), or even a whole city block. Instead of 100 cannon rounds and one 500-pound (227-kilogram) bomb, such an attack can (and often does) involve several thousand cannon rounds and a combination of 500- and 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs.

Needless to say, the casualties in such attacks are likely to be magnitudes greater, though we hardly read about them in the US press, since reporters working for US newspapers are rarely present before, during or after the attack. This has started to change since "Up in the air", a New Yorker piece by Seymour Hersh, garnered much attention for outlining a Bush administration draw-down strategy in which air attacks are to be increasingly relied upon.
-snip-
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this long article ends with this horror:

Consider then this gruesome arithmetic: if the US fulfills its expectation of surpassing 150 air attacks per month, and if the average air strike produces the (gruesomely) modest total of 10 fatalities, air power alone could kill well over 20,000 Iraqi civilians in 2006. Add the ongoing (but reduced) mortality due to other military causes on all sides, and the 1,000 civilian deaths per week rate recorded by the Hopkins study could be dwarfed in the coming year.

The new US strategy, billed as a way to de-escalate the war, is actually a formula for the slaughter of Iraqi civilians.
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genocide

well, we are the country that tortures.

[Village Idiot]

1. This is one reason they "scaled down" on the size of bombs.

They are dropping 500lb and even smaller 100lb bombs now, but in much greater numbers than they were dropping the 1000lb and one-ton munitions before October, 2005.

They have upped the number of bombing sorties from 25 to over 125 in December!!!

[donsu]

3. and americans are making the bombs

wonder what kind of pay and benefits these workers are getting.

they snuggle up to DU poisoning every day they are at work.

[Roland99]

2. 5 attacks/day and we're still losing >60 sodiers/mo.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. But, that's OK. Only "roadside bombs" are evil.

People who "plant" bombs are monsters. People who "drop" bombs are heroes.

People who blown up or incinerated by either are dead.

[donsu]

5. exactly

nt