More Bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Washington Post reports today in a piece headlined “U.S. Boosts Its Use of Airstrikes In Iraq” that: “The U.S.-led coalition dropped 1,447 bombs on Iraq last year, an average of nearly four a day, compared with 229 bombs, or about four each week, in 2006. … In Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO bombings picked up in the middle of 2006, coalition airstrikes reached 3,572 last year, more than double the total for 2006 and more than 20 times the number in 2005.”

BEAU GROSSCUP
Author of the new book Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment, Grosscup is professor of international relations at California State University in Chico.
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CONN HALLINAN
A columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus, Hallinan wrote the article “Death at a Distance: The U.S. Air War.” He said today: “This ‘battlefield bombing’ is when you go in and flatten things you have identified as ‘enemy.’ By definition it is inexact, relying on air identification, etc. It is like strategic bombing, but it is aimed more at civilians than industries. …

“‘Shaping the battlefield’ — a phrase the U.S. military uses — means you go in, blow up a lot of buildings, etc, and then maybe send in troops. The reason you do it is because you don’t have enough troops to do it on their own, and it may be too difficult to get artillery to the battlefield. Also, the fly boys love it. Strategic bombing is routine, generally delivered from high altitude. Battlefield bombing is like a video game — only the dead are real.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167