19 deaths isn't a whole bunch and quite a few, if not most, aren't our fault. Remember, there are several countries in this coalition. I remember reading that the US itself hasn't really hit too many targets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant#Multinational_coalition_opposition

but also keep in mind that the US's policy is to recognize everyone killed in the strike zone as a militant until it can be proven otherwise. It is the bizzaro version of innocent until proven guilty, but in many cases the bodies are unable to be identified. So essentially every number reported on civilian casualties is going to be below the actual number

Indeed, I'm not sure why the Obama administration did that.

I'd argue that we're doing the right thing by attacking ISIS. What they were doing was effectively genocide. I understand that there is a lot of blood on our allies, but sometimes you gotta make due with it. Look at WW2....we had to ally with the Russians ffs.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

we probably shouldn't be restricting Iran from providing ground aid in Iraq


ISIS is a bad group, but when we get involved in these conflicts we have a nasty habit of making heroes out of these militant groups. The fight against ISIS belongs to the people who occupy the region

Just like the fight against the Hutu belonged to the Tutsi? When people are getting slaughtered en masse, it's up to the strong to protect the weak.

but more people are dying as a result of our actions overseas.. in fact, ISIS themselves are a consequence of our intervening

yeah, it's better to just let them kill everyone they want to kill. passive approval and active encouragement of a genocide is the right thing to do.
wtf

true though, if the ISIS gets to kill everyone they want to kill they won't have anyone else to kill.

This post was edited by Gastly on Oct 11 2014 05:23pm

Pretty sure ISIS systematically executed hundreds in a single day. I doubt that we've inadvertently killed that many civilians....

As for ISIS coming about due to our intervention, that's partially true. We don't live in a perfect world.

we've killed over 100,000 people in our war on terror, and on top of that terrorism has multiplied as a result (which is again why ISIS is around to begin with)


if the war on terror were not a failure, then we wouldn't be fighting it anymore



Again, our actions have not reduced these acts of terrorism in any sense, they have only multiplied them. Every country we have carried military actions in since the war on terror began has experienced an INCREASE in terrorism

FACT: we killed more civilians in our effort to overthrow the Iraqi government than ISIS has in their effort to overthrow the Iraqi government

This post was edited by TCassa89 on Oct 11 2014 06:21pm