Al-Qaida and other insurgency groups use civilian crowds as cover when planning many deadly strikes against the infidel, burrowing themselves into the midst of groups of civilians and striking out in planned attacks, then disappearing as quickly as they appeared. This tactic was prevalent in Vietnam where the enemy was as unnoticeable as the civilian population. The military has been skewered over the needless deaths of civilians time and again.

We now find ourselves in the hunt for those who ordered the military to stand down when awaiting orders to slaughter civilians who unwittingly or with complicity sheltered those responsible for the death of an American ambassador and some of his staff. The secretary of state and the secretary of defense, we don’t have to mention names, have become obvious targets of the hunt. As long as the American military continues to be the bad guy with the deaths of civilians, we will see much more of this from al-Qaida.

Joe Corley

Bend