"The appointed prime minister of Iraq just yesterday tried to tell the world that there were no civilian casualties in Fallujah, when our very eyes tell us a different story. Our government tried to tell us that there were 'hardly any' civilian casualties.
"Yet ask yourself this: If the weapons are so accurate, then why were artillery operations ceased when U.S. personnel began operating in most of the city? The reason is simple. Artillery remains what it has been since the days of Napoleon: an 'area weapon.' That means it is used to rain destruction over an entire area, not just a particular house or bunker.
"For example, the Washington Post ran a story about the Marines responsible for operating the unmanned surveillance aircraft. The story described a small duel between the Marines' 155 mm howitzers and a single insurgent mortar tube, with the surveillance guys acting as spotters. It described the 'bracketing rounds,' one 100 yards left of the target, the next a few yards short, then the rounds fired 'for effect.' Of those, most landed right in and around the target, but two or three were off by as much as 100 yards. (Despite all that, they still missed the tube.)
"What, pray tell, was under those rounds that missed? Who knows? But we do know there were as many as 50,000 civilians who were unable to leave the city, and of the thousands of shells that were poured into the city (almost Russian in its scope was the barrage) it stands to reason that more than 'hardly any' innocents' lives were lost, their last hours spent enduring the thunder of exploding shells all around them and only to then have a house come crashing down upon them."
by J. Scott Smith in Salon
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