Well, as I understand it, when everything goes according to plan, they're pretty damned accurate.
However, that does not mean that we're only killing soldiers and only destroying weapons and military facilities.
Even when they do go according to plan, supply lines that feed the civilians as well as the military are strategic targets. Water supplies are legitimate targets, according to the rules of war. The idea is to both cut off the military's ability to function militarily AND to make the civilian population dependent on us instead of the Iraqi government.
Mean time, Iraqi civilians, either out of patriotism to their country, fear of retribution or some other motive, are aiding the Iraqi resistance in various ways. You can bet the farm that the Marines on the ground are taking them out as fast as they can because, to do otherwise, would be either AWOL or suicide. Three choices, none of them any fun at all.
I do not blame the soldiers for this under the circumstances. I blame the ties clip boards back in that nice $200k studio in Kuwait and those chicken hawks inside the beltway who pretended for all the world that the Iraqi people would welcome the soldiers with open arms and parades in the street.
I liked to think that the commanding officers had informed the soldiers what they were walking into and that they had all kept mum in the interest of leaving the politics to the politicians... But I'm finding out from some vets with family in active duty that that simply is not the case. Those sons of bitches sent those boys (and girls) into Baghdad just as innocent and wide eyed as their predecessors did in Viet Nam decades ago. THIS is unforgivable!
That's when things go according to plan. This is a war. Things never go according to plan. We have guided missles wielded by misguided men.
Guided missiles go right where you tell them to, usually. It depends on what they tell them. Sometimes, people are wrong. What they thought was a bunch of enemy soldiers on the move turned out to be buses full of refugees. And the Iraqis may have figured out ways to foil the communication that guides the missiles. Then there are just transient failures of technology. They happen. Any geek knows to expect it. I'm only glad that when my stuff breaks, it only bounces mail or crashes a browser, it doesn't actually kill anyone.
There lives more faith, in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.
http://www.tatteredcover.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=showproduct&affiliateId=000095&isbn=0753816571' target='_new'>Alfred Lord Tennyson
