I am not getting involved in this debate per se, but just wanted to make some points. In regards to this by John: >>And, with the exception of Great Britain, please tell me what other nation, >>in the middle of a war, very carefully attacks legitimate military targets and >>then concurrently feeds the population of that country? There was an article a few days ago (people outside of Australia probably wouldn't have heard about it) about a RAAF F/A-18 pilot who stopped carrying out his mission, because he was not able to distinguish the target (or positively identify it). There was talk of a rift with the American forces over this, because the rules of engagement for Australian, and also British, troops are so much stricter than the American rules. (Just checked and surprisingly, the article is still up) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s814594.htm I am lead to believe that American rules of engagement only require that the "threat" is perceived....there is no need for that "threat" to be confirmed before engaging it. In terms of these rules, it is possible that illegitimate targets could be hit. Now, someone else mentioned the USS Vincennes and it's shooting down of IR655. After this incident, there was no official apology forthcoming from US officials (and there still has been no official apology made); the basic fact (of which I am sure most people are aware of) is that the American military said that they sent several warnings to to "Iranian fighter", "Iranian F-14" and "Iranian aircraft" before the decision was made to shoot the aircraft down. Afterwards there were comments made which basically made out that the Iranians were at fault in this case because they should not have had civilian aircraft flying in a hostile area; although this aircraft was on a regular scheduled flight and was inside Iranian airspace at the time, PLUS the Vincennes at the time of the incident was inside Iranian territorial waters. Upon returning to their country, the commanders of the Vincennes were actually given medals, which only further incensed the Iranian people and government. This was in 1988. Fast forward to 1996 and the US government was still fighting the claims of fault in relation to this incident, but they then made an offer of "humanitarian" compensation to the victims families; this offer was made without any admittance of culpability on the part of the crew of the Vincennes. The amounts offered were $300,000 per wage earner and $150,000 per non-wage earner, for a total of $72.5 million. There was no compensation for the actual aircraft (A300)........(sorry if my figures are incorrect, as I am going on memory here, so they may be a bit out, but are in the general ballpark).