Air Strikes to be Authorized with Limited Conditions

In an effort to stem the tide of Taliban propaganda proclaiming the inordinate amount of civilian deaths tied to US air strikes, Gen. McChrystal issued a new directive stating that air strikes would only be used under prescribed conditions. This will cut down on civilian deaths and hopefully help endear us to the Afghan people.

As someone who will always preach diplomacy over war, I am conflicted about this new directive. While I applaud anything that will lessen the amount of civilian casualties, I have to wonder how our troops will adapt to this new rule. Surely air strikes are an indispensable part of their tool kit and it will undoubtedly be much harder to fight this war without them. However, nobody ever said war was easy. If it comes down to it though, I would rather a couple of Afghan civilians died in a an air strike than have a squad of our troops get overrun by insurgents because they were waiting for one, as terrible as that is to say. It is truly a very delicate situation.