American Techniques of War & Iraqi Citizens

How many civilians have died in the U.S. War on Terror?

The challenges presented by fighting a guerilla style war were daunting and very dangerous. This new kind of war with the terrorist being the enemy, caused the U.S. military to redefine their rules of engagement. Since American soldiers struggled to distinguish enemy combatants from the everyday citizens of Iraq, many mistakes were made. Soldiers arriving found themselves thrust into a warzone the likes of which many had never encountered. How were they to identify the enemy? They were told, "If it looks like an enemy, shoot it." This strategy was difficult to follow because who would decide what an enemy looked like.  And in reality the enemy looked identical to the innocent citizens of Iraq.  The problem continued to be the lack of credible specific intelligence which caused the military personnel to operate with broad sweeping descriptions of insurgents and lead to the harassment and interrogation of many innocent Iraqi citizens. The U.S. military believed this to be a necessary consequence of the War on Terror. Iraqi citizens claim that U.S. forces detained many innocent Iraqis, ripped them from their families, and placed them in custody at the prison in Abu Ghraib, outside of Baghdad.

It is hard for me to criticize American soldiers who were on the ground fighting in very difficult circumstances. The design of the insurgent's warfare was the primary reason that the U.S. military implemented the strategy that it did. Insurgents hid themselves among innocent citizens purposely for this very reason. The enemy never made itself known until the blast of an IED killed American service men and women. What else could they have done? I do believe that U.S. intelligence agencies should have done a better job at collecting and conveying information to the troops on the ground in Baghdad. This proved once again that you cannot successfully fight a political war. War is definitely unpleasant and elements of war are downright disturbing but what would take place at Abu Ghraib was inhumane and would soil the reputation of the U.S. military as a whole. Innocent citizens were caught in the crossfire of an ugly and devastating conflict.  It is one thing when fighting on the streets of Baghdad to be extra cautious about trying to identify the enemy and for mistakes to be made on that front.  But it is entirely different to abuse, humiliate, and torture those innocent human beings that were in custody and being held in the cells within the Abu Ghraib prison.  The U.S. response that this was War and someone had to pay was quite irresponsible.  Those responsible for the attacks should have been held accountable and brought to justice but innocent citizens in no way should have suffered as many of them did at the hands of the U.S. military.