Conflicts and wars ultimately end with both sides losing soldiers in battle, which is unfortunate but expected. What is not expected is the death of innocent civilians on the battlefield that are not part of the fight. Since the beginning of the Iraq invasion in 2003, far too many innocent civilians have been killed by air attacks and misplaced bullets.

A child dying on the battlefield is something neither side should want. America has strict policies in place to try and prevent “collateral damage” as these casualties are so flippantly referred to, but even one accidental death should be considered unacceptable.

Some countries have been known to use women and children as body armor, knowing the United States would not bomb certain strategic sites for fear of killing them.  For example, Saddam Hussein used to set up his military in hospitals and schools hoping that would stop a warhead from being dropped on their heads.  Another example is ISIS having units in densely populated areas, trying to deter the United States from striking them.

Exactly how many civilians have been killed in Iraq by U.S. forces? There are no concrete statistics, but there are rough estimates.  According to the Iraqi Body Count Project, 45,779 children have died in Iraq during the U.S. occupation.  These deaths are inexcusable, but a lot of the times unavoidable without boots on the ground. With intelligence on the ground we could use our special and conventional forces to eliminate targets and mitigate the risk of children being killed in attacks.

As America becomes more technologically advanced, we can reduce the deaths of children during conflict.  There are new military tactics being used that set off improvised explosive devices (IED’s) with radio waves, which prevents them from being set off inadvertently by American troops. This radio wave technology is great, but without intelligence on the ground or real time satellite imagery, a certain amount of loss of life is to be expected.

According to Fox News, ISIS is urging for the bombing of strategic targets in the United States such as Times Square, in New York City. ISIS does not care if our children die, so should we still care about theirs? Yes, because all innocent lives are worth saving. How do we prevent the death of children on the battlefield? The answer is by eliminating the real threat – which is exactly what the U.S. led alliance is attempting to do now in Iraq and Syria. We can only hope that terror networks choose not to use children as human shields, and that the U.S. employs more civilian friendly attack methods sooner rather than later.