I suggest that anyone who doubts that the US would target civilians should go to the DIA website and search the recently declassified documents. Here you will find that the US military knew that targeting the Iraqi civilian infrastructure (this is expressly forbidden by the Geneva and Hague conventions, the Nuremberg Charter and the laws of armed conflict) would lead to widespread epidemics of cholera and other waterborne diseases. They also knew that children were especially vunerable. And yet the military REPEATEDLY targeted water purification, sewage treatment plants and irrigation systems. The sanctions have been so stringent that even water purification tablets and ambulances have been denied. This has led to the death of over a million people (over half of them children) who had nothing to do with the invasion of Kuwait. Or how 'bout this example. By June 1945,the Truman administration knew that the Japanese were looking for a face-saving way to surrender. In May 1945, Hirohito dismissed the militarists in the cabinet that had gotten Japan into the war. Intercepted messages between Tokyo and the Japanese ambassador to Moscow (of which Truman had full knowledge) read as follow: July 12: "It is His Majesty's heart's desire to see the swift termination of the war ..." July 13: "I send Ando ... to communicate to the [Soviet] Ambassador that His Majesty desired to dispatch Prince Konoye as special envoy carrying with him the personal letter of His Majesty stating the Imperial wish to end the war." July 21: "Special Envoy Konoye's mission will be in obedience to the Imperial will. He will request assistance in bringing about an end to the war through the good offices of the Soviet government." This note also reveals that a conference between the Emperor's emissary and the Soviet Union was sought in preparation for contacting the US and Great Britain. There were plenty of other intercepts. Truman (who already knew) was approached at the Potsdam conference by Stalin with the offer. Truman brushed him off. The list of Truman's top commanders who opposed the use of the atomic bombs is impressive: General Douglas MacArthur, Truman's chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy, chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest J. King, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, Rear Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, commanding general of the US Army Air Forces Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, General Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers. Army Stategic Air Forces Commander Carl Spatz and Army Air Force General Curtis LeMay. These men all challenged the military necessity argument. Among Truman's advisers, Secretary of State Stimson, Asst. Secretary of War John McCloy, former Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew, Navy Undersecretary Ralph Bard, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all took issue with the decision. When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was approached by Leslie Groves (Manhattan Project JCS liason) with information on the atomic bomb test, he replied that it wasn't necessary, that Japan was preparing to surrender. In 1963, Eisenhower told 'Newsweek' that "it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing". Hiroshima and Nagasaki had no military value. They were purely civilian targets, chosen because they were the only two cities that hadn't been razed by firebombings. Half a million innocent civilians were incinerated or died slow painful deaths from radiation poisoning. The idea that the US hasn't targeted civilians is an uninformed one. I could site a dozen more (going back to the near annihilation of Native Americans) with detailed backup information. With all that said, NOTHING can justify what was done yesterday. Targeting innocent people is criminal and MUST be punished. It must not be done as retaliation or revenge (This would only drag us into a cycle of violence where no one wins), but it must be done.