But again, because it's the Iraqi's that are putting their civilians in the line of fire, it's *they* who are ultimately responsible for collateral damage caused by civilians being too close to the fighting.

The Apaches that took all the small arms fire, came under fire from houses. They didn't want to return fire for fear of causing civilian casualties. They waited until they saw fire coming for a particular house, then hit that one. They are risking a lot trying to not hit civilians, and the Iraqis are purposely putting civilians at risk.

The same goes for Basra. The attacks from there were staged from a hospital. Obviously those are not exactly at the top of a target list. Any civilians in that hospital were put at risk because of the Iraqis purposely using them as a shield.

The US has a reputation of trying to minimize civilian casualties. In Mogadeshu(sp?) the fighters had unarmed civilians surrounding them, and in some cases laying on top of them to act as shields.

The civilians aren't just too close to the fighting, they are in the fighting, by design (and not the coalition's either).