U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq Could Intensify

U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq Could Intensify

WASHINGTON - U.S. warplanes have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq in the past two years, bombing and strafing insurgent fighters and targets almost daily. And the air war, which has gone largely unnoticed at home, could intensify once American ground forces start to withdraw.

Since Iraq doesn't have a working air force, U.S. jets are expected to provide air cover for Iraqi troops for at least several more years.

Some analysts have raised questions about how effective air power can be in a counterinsurgency war. A key fear is that Iraq's mostly Shiite Muslim and Kurdish army will use American and allied bombing missions for revenge attacks on the Sunni Muslim Arab minority, which provides most of the insurgency's fighters.

"If we allow that to happen, then in essence we'll be doing the same thing we accused Saddam Hussein of doing," said Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA and State Department official. "We'll just be substituting one tyranny for another."

You're catching on.....this next parahraph makes me sick!

American military officials say they try to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. Nevertheless, civilians die. On Jan. 2, a U.S. plane bombed a house in northern Iraq where insurgents were thought to be hiding, killing at least eight people, including two children, according to news reports.
BU*SH*T! Stop killing innocent people!

We've already done worse than what Sadaam is accused of doing, but now the people of Iraq can't even get jobs, food or medical care, so we have destroyed a nation innocent people.

Or is this to build the oil pipelines, like Afghanistan?