The United States launched many more failed airstrikes on a far broader array of senior Iraqi leaders during the early days of the war last year than has previously been acknowledged, and some caused significant civilian casualties, according to senior military and intelligence officials.
Only a few of the 50 airstrikes have been described in public. All were unsuccessful, and many, including the two well-known raids on Saddam Hussein and his sons, appear to have been undercut by poor intelligence, current and former government officials said.
...A report in December by Human Rights Watch, based on a review of four strikes, concluded that the singling out of Iraqi leadership had "resulted in dozens of civilian casualties that the United States could have prevented if it had taken additional precautions."
...The strikes, carried out against so-called high-value targets during a one-month period that began on March 19, 2003, used precision-guided munitions against at least 13 Iraqi leaders, including Gen. Izzat Ibrahim, Iraq's No. 2 official, the officials said.
General Ibrahim is still at large, along with at least one other top official who was a target of the failed raids.
New York Times article
Only a few of the 50 airstrikes have been described in public. All were unsuccessful, and many, including the two well-known raids on Saddam Hussein and his sons, appear to have been undercut by poor intelligence, current and former government officials said.
...A report in December by Human Rights Watch, based on a review of four strikes, concluded that the singling out of Iraqi leadership had "resulted in dozens of civilian casualties that the United States could have prevented if it had taken additional precautions."
...The strikes, carried out against so-called high-value targets during a one-month period that began on March 19, 2003, used precision-guided munitions against at least 13 Iraqi leaders, including Gen. Izzat Ibrahim, Iraq's No. 2 official, the officials said.
General Ibrahim is still at large, along with at least one other top official who was a target of the failed raids.
These were not failed raids. They were intentional "shock and awe" planned raids. What kind of "precision-guided munitions" can strike a single person from the air? Give me a fucking break.
The idea was to blow the crap out of the Iraqi population's will to resist. "Shock and Awe". They even bragged about that. And a second motive for a shitload of airstrikes was to avoid putting men on the ground and risk exactly what's happening - dead American soldiers. It's part of the Weinberger-Powell doctrine of protecting American forces from casualties.
I can't believe they're still expecting us to buy that "precision-guided" crap. Wait, I take it back. I can believe it. And I'm quite sure it's still working on some people.
The broad scope of the campaign and its failures, along with the civilian casualties, have not been acknowledged by the Bush administration.
Well, what a surprise.
But we are not going to get concerned about the incredibly immoral and probably illegal slaughter of civilians in such an approach. Instead, we are going to focus on our lousy intelligence.
The poor record in the strikes has raised questions about the intelligence they were based on, including whether that intelligence reflected deception on the part of Iraqis, the officials said. The March 19, 2003, attempt to kill Mr. Hussein and his sons at the Dora Farms compound, south of Baghdad, remains a subject of particular contention.
So what are we going to do if we find out the Iraqis were deceptive? Should they not have been? The God-damned weaselly little cheaters.
General Moseley, the top Air Force commander during the war who is now the Air Force vice chief of staff, said in the interview last summer that commanders were required to obtain advance approval from Mr. Rumsfeld if any planned airstrike was likely to result in the deaths of 30 more civilians. More than 50 such raids were proposed, and all were approved, General Moseley said.
Well, now I'm shocked again.
