Minimizing the Damage

When it comes to war, I believe that a nation has a responsibility to ensure that no innocent lives are lost. In the war in Iraq, there is no reason why civilian lives should be considered expendable or necessary, like in WWII, because we now have the technology and intelligence to make informed decisions on our airstrikes. In WWII, we were at were with a much stronger enemy, with technology close to our own, so we felt that we were at risk of losing more lives, whether it be military or innocent live due to another strike like Pearl Harbor. Now, we are fighting a war against people who have little means of technological, using weaponry leftover from battles many years ago. There is no organized military with the intelligence to inflict major damage to our armed forces or country, so there is no real need to take innocent life. I think that military should do all that it can to keep civilians safe, such as projecting the type of bomb, angle of the drop, and time of attack, to minimize the damage to innocent. For example, when bombing an area where major terrorist leader were suspected, the military did all that it could to make sure that the hospital across the street was not damaged. Even though some innocent people may die, they must take into account that it is necessary to take out terrorist leaders who could essentially cause more loss of life if they were left untouched. It is a very tough decision, but I feel that it is necessary as long as too many innocent lives aren’t lost. This is why I felt it was appropriate that there was a single digit number, that if estimated loss of civilian life was higher than, then the okay must be given by the president. Sure some would say no innocent people should be killed, but that is impossible. The terrorist must be taken out or else they would do more harm to American troops and Iraqi people. It is obvious that the U.S. is doing all that they can, such as creating low collateral weapons, and I believe they should be commended for their efforts to save human life. I absolutely agree about how difficult it is to make the decision about conducting an airstrike, like when a small group of Americans are outnumbered by a large enemy force and there is no time to gather intelligence on loss of innocent life. However, this is when it is necessary, like with WWII, to save the lives of our American soldiers, and as sad as it is to say, we must value their lives more than the lives of innocent Iraqi people. Still, I think that the American government is doing all that it can to minimize the damage.