Policy, collective punishment or free-floating retribution

[mburbank]

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution


"The crackdown came a day after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing all six soldiers aboard. The cause of the crash remains uncertain although the U.S. command said in a statement that initial findings ``discount the use of surface-to-air missiles as a possible cause.''

Late Friday, U.S. troops fired mortars around the crash site and Air Force jets dropped at least three 500-pound bombs on the same area. U.S. commanders said they were trying to warn the locals against supporting insurgents."



So we don't know why our blackhawk crashed, but we're prettty sure it didn't get shot down. But we drop at least three 500 lbs bombs in the area as a 'warning'. Those are big ass bombs and they aren't cheap either. This is a strategy? Large scale bombing of an area where one of our copters went down for unknown reasons?