Iraqi children targeted once again...

I understand the reason behind US troops wanting to donate toys or candy to Iraqi children. It's an attempt to make a public relations connection. However, is that really something that our troops should be doing given the fact that the terrorists or insurgents whatever you want to call them are using these public gatherings as a time to strike?

Of course there is the mentality that says we should not live our lives as determined by those who want to kill innocents. Yet who pays for this situation? Iraqi children and their parents.

Nov. 24 -- A suicide attacker steered a car packed with explosives toward U.S. soldiers giving away toys to children outside a hospital in central Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 31 people. Almost all of the victims were women and children, police said.

July 13 --27 people killed when a suicide bomber drove into a crowd that had gathered around U.S. soldiers who were handing out candy and small toys, police said. The attack also killed one soldier, according to the U.S. military, and wounded at least 50 people.

October 1, 2004 -- Children rushing to collect sweets from American soldiers became the latest victims of Iraqi insurgents as a series of devastating car bombs struck Baghdad yesterday. Thirty four children were killed, in all, 44 people were killed and over 236 injured, officials said.

The above listed incidents were just those that involved a large death toll and were close to being in the past year.

In July, this was an article headline:

US Soldiers Risk Death to Gain Smiles From Iraqi Children

The article goes on further to state:

The original mission of the 1-128 was to secure the Iraqi region in which they were operating, obtain human intelligence and report on criminal activity. But the commander allowed the soldiers to "dedicate portions of our patrol for the specific purpose of helping to improve the local infrastructure and distributing the humanitarian aid collected by members of our platoon," according to Johnson.

What followed was a full-fledged humanitarian effort in support of the surrounding communities, many of which, Johnson explained, include struggling farmers "genuinely excited about the prospect of developing their young democracy."

An honorable mission, however what was not mentioned is not only are the US soldiers putting their lives at risk, but they were also risking the lives of Iraqi children and their parents. While the ultimate responsibility for these deaths is the terrorists/insurgents should we continue to help create situations for these people to strike? To me it's the same theory as not having done a better job security wise for those who wanted to sign up to join the Iraqi Security Forces, time after time those who wanted to volunteer were targeted.

While it is very hard in an urban setting to tell who is friend or foe, to me logic dictates we create as few situations for large numbers of civilian deaths that the Americans can be associated with.