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I believe there will always be a certain number of civilian casualties in times of conflict. I feel that the war on terrorism presents more issues. Who are the terrorist? We never really know. With woman suicide bombers ending the lives of 70 to 100 souls and children knowingly participating in diversion activities. It is so very hard to tell who the bad guy is.

To think that terrorists beliefs are so strongly ingrained in them to feel pride in destroying so many lives and themselves in the process all for the sake of a cause bends at my soul. Yes there will be unavoidable casualties, but I think that when we use weapons like AC-130 warplane armed with heavy cannons capable of firing more than 1,800 rounds a minute - I have to ask if it is that much different than the suicide bomber. We are taking out who ever falls within that target with little regard for who they are. And we are doing it long distance. It is cowardly. When a suicide bomber picks his target he looks for casualties and more importantly publicity. He puts himself or herself out there....to the death.

When we select targets we try to be exact however we are not present to see who we are actually killing. We hope to know that our target is actually the enemy but we are not there to confirm.

When we use "keep away" weaponry we not only put keep from putting ourselves at risk but we can't see who we are killing. We don't even allow for a moment of discrimination. It is cowardly and wrong. It lacks honor.

There are times when blowing an estate off the top of a mountain filled with members of the drug cartels warrants long range missile or AC-130 warplanes. But to think that we are only hurting the guy sitting on the toilet of the 5000 square foot concrete building with green shutters on the corner of 1st and Beach street, and only the guy sitting not the man at the sink picking lunch out of his teeth - well it's crazy. No we hit a target and it is the target and everything within 50 - 100 feet. That means people on the street could be hit.

Yes it is the cheaper way to fight a war. No casualties to us, no troupe movement costs, everything behind the screen of a computer. I don't know our honor as a country is worth the savings.

If we know where the enemy is than why not drop 50 specialists outside the concrete building, on the corner of 1st and Beach, storm the structure pull the guy off the toilet that we want and hope to only kill the enemy and not the pour kid begging for pennies outside the building.

Learn more about this author, Peg R.
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