Why airpower matters
From a blog, http://armyofdude.blogspot.com/, ostensibly form a soldier in Iraq. At least some of the grunts know why airpower is important. Of course, if we had used a hellfire or LGB, we probably would be accused of killing a boatload of civilians. But that is bad, even if the insurgents are now emplacing IEDs in houses to nail soldiers and who knows how many civilians themselves.
Seven Men Killed At The Same Time – Finally, one of the lowest, saddest points of the deployment came in May. One night, a helicopter spotted several men gathered in the road with a large object. Permission was asked to fire a Hellfire missile at them, as they were obvious IED emplacers. Permission was emphatically denied, but someone decided that a Stryker platoon should head out there anyway to check it out. In tow was a Russian reporter. On a road called Trash Alley, they hit a massive deep buried IED. Everyone in the truck except the driver, six Americans and one Russian, dead. And they didn’t need to be there at all. A helicopter could have killed the insurgents with breathtaking ease. Instead, those guys and the one with the detonator got away in the night. Justice was never done.