No, really?

U.S. Military Prefers Indonesian Aid to Iraq War:

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (Reuters) - U.S. military crews are launching more than 100 helicopter flights a day from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln ferrying food, water and medicine to tsunami victims, a task they say is far more satisfactory than the Iraq (news - web sites) war that seems only to destroy.

'Oh yeah, no doubt,' said U.S. Navy (news - web sites) helicopter pilot Rachel Brainard. 'Here we're helping people, not destroying things.'

Not surprising, really. Any moral person would prefer helping others to killing them, our military personnel are no exception.

However, things are so messed up in Iraq that now our troops are basically shooting first and asking questions later. They can't afford not to at this stage when any approaching car could be a car bomb, and any approaching stranger could be a suicide bomber.

War supporters predicted Iraqis would be so happy to get rid of Saddam they would greet U.S. soldiers as conquering heroes, but instead violent Iraqi resistance has bogged down the U.S.-led effort.

We squandered any chance that we would be "greeted as liberators" in Iraq by not being prepared to "win the peace". By permitting the looting, by not protecting the citizens in the initial days after the military victory, by disbanding the Iraqi Army (and placing all of its members on unemployment), we sowed the seeds of the insurgency. Now, the Iraqi's realize that while the insurgency is directed at the U.S., they are increasingly its victims and they resent us for it.