Police getting hostages out have an obligation to protect the citizens.
In warfare, however, another country doesn't have the same obligations. While they might *try* to reduce casualties, they are going to get out their people and in some cases innocent citizens might die. The other issue in this situation is that the citizenry either has the hostages or is protecting the hostage takers.
What would we expect our military to do if 1200 people were killed in El Paso Texas and 200 hostages were taken to Juarez?
Would we expect to get those hostages back? What cost even if the citizenry wasn't protecting the hostage takers? How much of Mexico would we level if we were constantly being attacked with missle fire?
I like Dave smith but sometimes I think he's too naive when it comes to warfare.
