It looks like the military is getting tougher as they deal with the insurgents in Iraq. I do have a problem with the second paragraph:
Pentagon officials rejected any comparison to the tactics employed by the Israeli military in the West bank and Gaza, saying the U.S. actions are not aimed at punishing sympathizers, but rather are aimed at eliminating legitimate military targets.
My question, why aren’t we going after the sympathizers? What ever happened to “you’re either for us or against us (paraphrase of Bush)”? Those sympathizers could be the ones hiding the bad guys or aiding them in targeting the good guys. This is war.