We've all heard the
news by now. Our boys killed at least 54 Iraqis in the biggest battle since the fall of Saddam. The U.S. military is trumpeting victory, but is it a hollow sound? While we won that battle, we still are loosing the war. Here's why:
The Iraqis claim that many of the dead were civilians.
Even if this is not true, even if all of the fighters were known insurgents, the fact that the people of Iraq believe that they were civilians shows that we've all but lost the good will of the non-insurgent population. More on that, below.
Civilians may have joined the fight.
One can say that any target with a gun is a fair target. However, we then get into a game of "who did what". Both sides agree that it was the insurgents who fired the first shot, but that's where the similarities end. The civilians say the American troops then began firing at random, which prompted civilians to take up arms.
Pro-Saddam sentiment is taking over in areas affected by these conflicts.
The insurgents don't need to kill all our troops to succeed. All they need to do is win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. With each of these conflicts, especially where (believed) civilians are killed, that is the end result.
If our troops are firing at random, striking civilian buildings and killing innocent people, then they're doing the job of the opposition. All evidence points towards this as happening, especially since it seems our military has taken a liking to blowing up choice buildings just to send a message.
In conclusion, we're making a bad situation a whole lot worse.