[TChris]

We should all take a deep breath and remember that it was only 60 years ago or so that it was expected and accepted war-fighting practice to kill civilians. It has only been very recently, in the historical big picture, that the possibility of choosing to avoid civilian casualties has existed.

The fact that we do our best to avoid them, and mostly can, is a HUGE advance! I don't agree with those who would cast blame because our still imperfect processes and systems don't sort out combatant from civilian reliably.

War is hell, and it's an ongoing, merciless tragedy from start to finish. Though we've made great strides toward narrowing the destructive scope of our missions, there will always be unintended death. We and ours do our best, and that's all that can be done.

[iopscusa]

200 years ago War Fighting hardly killed any civilians at least directly.....WW1 did not. WW2 got the civilian killing off the ground by the Brit and American bombing of German cities....it has not slowed that much since.