From a variety of people (commentators and such) today I have heard vociferous denials that the U.S. was responsible for the civilian deaths at the open-air market in Baghdad we’ve been hearing about. Now, I support our mission in Iraq. I support our troops. I am sick of the U.N., the Arab media, and some U.S. media’s moral equivalence. But, I don’t think our first instinct, when we see footage from Arab TV of some sort of what are purported to be civilian casualties, should be to deny it. It could be true. It could be false. People died–that’s horrible, however it happened. If one of missiles went astray, we have the deepest regret. The fact, of course, remains, though, that this is likely as humane a war as can be waged in terms of precision and compassion. But I think those of us who get the war should be careful of turning people who would otherwise support us off.