On Urban Warfare and Collateral Damage

There's many talking points and websites that cite statistics of Iraq and Afghanistan's "collateral damage", constantly used as fodder for anti-free Iraq rhetoric. Their problem? They believe the enemy adheres to the same principled warfare as our coalition military. Such a mentality is just western naivety, based on a hopeful idealism. Admirable in theory, but useless in reality.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Urban warfare is hell. I'll be the first to say to any of our US military, shoot first when you believe there is clear and present danger, and ask questions later. I prefer they come home alive, and sort it out via investigations. There can and will be regrettable errors. But we must face facts... this is not the wars of the past, where the enemies wore uniforms and were well defined. The enemies... for the most part.. did not hide behind burkas, children and disabled women.

Today's CBC News out of Canada, "Bomber who struck Canadians was 11 years old, military sources say".

Few details of the attack were immediately available. The soldiers were on foot patrol at about 10 a.m. local time when the bomb exploded.

The Canadian Press quoted a military spokeswoman, Capt. Amber Bineau, as saying the boy is thought to have been wearing an explosive vest when he walked up to the patrol.

She condemned the attack as a "last ditch-attempt" by militants to disrupt the progress of Afghan and NATO forces in establishing security in the country.

"These types of attacks demonstrate a weakness in the insurgency and do not impede the resolve of those who work to make Kandahar province a safe and stable environment," she said in a statement.

There was no official confirmation of the bomber's age or how the bomb was triggered.

snip

In a separate attack not involving NATO forces Wednesday, a suicide bomber dressed in a burka struck a police station in the western province of Farah, killing 12 people and wounding 27 others.

Initial reports said the bomber was a woman, but the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it was carried out by a man named Mullah Khalid wearing the burka as a disguise.

As a reminder to the whiners of the world, allow me to give you a reintroduction to the enemy. The same cowardly enemy that demonstrates no honor in battle. The enemy that hides behind burkas instead of openly wearing a uniform like our coalition guys. The very same enemy that brainwashes "the innocent" into being their walking bombs.... children, disabled men in wheelchairs, or the mentally handicapped. It appears that brave, young jihadists - willing to die - are becoming an endangered species. Bad news for the bad guys.

So the next time you see reports of "women and children" being killed in a raid, and race to the conclusion that we are barbarians equal to those we fight, you might want to ask yourself:

Were they truly innocents? Or were they the next suicide bomber who's fuse hadn't detonated the bombs that kill our warriors?