Sattelite Imagery of Baghdad

USA Today -- a publication doing a pretty decent job of covering the way -- has on its website some astonishing sattelite imagery of the effects of our bombing in Baghdad.

See:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/baghdad-strikes.htm

As you can see, in these examples, the attacks are as precision as you can get, with holes right in the center of these buildings, with surrounding structures apparently undamaged.

These sattelite images are provided by DigitalGlobe, apparently free of charge to anyone who wants to use them, as long as there is attribution. See:

http://www.digitalglobe.com/gallery/baghdad/

for a number of other remarkable sattellite photos.

Of course, the recent explosions and civilian deaths in the marketplaces of Baghdad are awful and regrettable. And there can be no doubt that our targeting and bombing technology is not 100% perfect, and that there will inevitably be mistakes.

Yet, so much of the evidence now suggests -- certainly doesn't guarantee -- but suggests that it is highly unlikely these tragedies were caused by our munitions. To wit:

--The precision of the vast majority of our ordnance.

--The fact that Baghdad, despite being a huge city, has most of its state/military/and institutional buildings concentrated along the bend of the Tigris River.

--The fact that we do virtually all our bombing at night -- I believe to minimize casualties of all kinds.

--The fact that there have been a number of examples of Iraqi anti-aircraft missles, with very imprecise targeting technology, falling to earth.

--The fact that Saddam himself has sacked -- and presumably executed -- his cousin who was heretofore responsible for Baghdad's air defense.

The truth will eventually come out and maybe errant US explosives are to blame (and can anyone doubt that if it WAS our ordnance, it was a tragic mistake?)

But I doubt it.