Another day in Iraq and 9 troops dead. Sounds like somebody really got irked when the troops lured to a booby trapped house all got blown up and decided to lower the boom. So the Air Force launched a bunch of B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters and

In the span of 10 minutes Thursday, U.S. warplanes dropped as much explosive south of Baghdad as they usually do in a month, a thundering barrage of more than 40,000 pounds of bombs intended to blow up insurgents' weapons stashes.

Can we say "extreme disproportionate response"? Not really. You could say the extreme disproportionate response occurred back in 2003 when, in response to a bunch of crazed Saudis flying into three buildings in D.C. and New York and downing a plane full of passengers in a Pennsylvania field, the Pentagon invaded Iraq with a lot of shock and awe. But only in a world where it's normal for a kid denied bike privileges to go out and blow up some frogs.

If the suggestion that the U.S. has been in a mega snit for the last five years strikes you as insufficiently sensitive to the death and destruction it has caused, my apologies. But, the sudden admission by the Air Force of bombing that's been going on continuously since the first planes took off for shock and awe is both revolting and welcome.

Yes, it's revolting that the Air Force should brag about dropping twenty tons of bombs on an Iraqi house in an orchard in a

... bombing campaign, which targeted caches of roadside bombs first identified by surveillance drones, was the most intensive aerial bombardment in the southern region. It came as part of the military's overall offensive, known as Phantom Phoenix, under way now in several parts of the country. While ground forces continued to pursue insurgents in Diyala province north of Baghdad, the warplanes tried to clear the southern territory of the bombs that have regularly destroyed U.S. armored vehicles.

because, when you come right down to it, there's no way for anyone to know for certain what the drones they are directing from consoles in Kuwait lead them to suspect. As Charles J. Hanley reported last summer

In the first 4 1/2 months of 2007, American aircraft dropped 237 bombs and missiles in support of ground forces in Iraq, already surpassing the 229 expended in all of 2006, according to U.S. Air Force figures obtained by The Associated Press.

"Air operations over Iraq have ratcheted up significantly, in the number of sorties, the number of hours (in the air)," said Col. Joe Guastella, Air Force operations chief for the region. "It has a lot to do with increased pressure on the enemy by MNC-I" the Multinational Corps-Iraq "combined with more carriers."

The Air Force report did not break down the specific locations in Iraq where bombings have been stepped up. But U.S.-led forces also are locked in new and dangerous fronts against insurgents outside Baghdad in such places as Diyala, a province northeast of the capital.

A second U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on station since February in the Persian Gulf has added some 80 warplanes to the U.S. air arsenal in the region.

When Hanley reports:

Examples of attacks, as reported in the Air Force's daily summary:

Last Friday, an Air Force F-16 fighter dropped a guided 500-pound bomb near the northern city of Tal Afar that destroyed a vehicle laden with explosives to be used as a bomb.

The day before, an F-16 dropped a similar bomb on "an inaccessible building being used by insurgents" near Samarra, north of Baghdad, with "good effects."

Last Wednesday, another F-16 dropped bombs on "an illegal bridge and an insurgent vehicle in Baghdad."

the only thing that's certain is that nobody's clear about who's doing what to whom in a world where bridges are "illegal" and "insurgents" transform themselves into vehicles, or vice versa.

Of course, Hanley's reports from his 2007 visit to Iraq and neighboring Kuwait, which Hanley is careful to identify only as a

regional U.S. air headquarters. Journalists are allowed to visit that low-profile base on condition they don't disclose its location, a politically sensitive matter to the host country.

but which sure sounds like al-Udeid is old news and one has to wonder whether the AP assertion that

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

is the new version of a strategy that's designed to insure that his reporting doesn't get widely distributed.

Was the earlier strategy of simply holding his stories, like the debunking of Colin Powell's testimony to the U.N., for six months too embarrassing when it finally came out? Who knows? Fact is that there's a whole month's worth of stories by the fellow who brought us a detailed description of the activities at Balad Air Base and the massive embassy , after which, it seems, he wasn't invited back for fourteen months.

ABCNews has the series conveniently indexed, everything from the Secretive Military Nerve Center,a Cool, Digitized 'Warehouse', the bomb rate, to hangings for treason, robot attacks, and last, but not least, preparations for bringing all this stuff back home.

But, perhaps the most telling paragraph I ran across today comes with the report on the bombing of the palm grove.

Arab Jubour lies along the Tigris River amid lush tracts of palm groves, fields and grasslands. Before the U.S. military troop buildup last year, it had become an essentially ungoverned enclave, devoid of Iraqi police officers and dominated by Sunni insurgents. As U.S. soldiers attempted to crack down on the rural lands around Baghdad, they erected a makeshift base there and sent regular patrols down the often bomb-riddled roads.

What's particularly telling is the characterization of an "ungoverned enclave, devoid of Iraqi police officers" as an appropriate target for a military invasion. Clearly, there's no appreciation here of people being the government and police officers as agents who are occasionally called in. Rather, people minding their own business are defined as "ungoverned" and rural lands as something to "crack down on."

All of which might suggest that since the mission to perfect the arts of urban guerrilla warfare isn't going too well, the Pentagon is sending the troops and the Air Force back out into the boonies to conduct the kind of joint operation that, in the end, didn't work in Viet Nam either.

Perhaps it doesn't matter how long Hanley's reports are denied wide circulations. Certainly, what he wrote last July would have been accurate yesterday.

The escalation worries some about an increase in "collateral damage," casualties among Iraqi civilians. Air Force generals worry about wear and tear on aging aircraft. But ground commanders clearly like what they see.

"Night before last we had 14 strikes from B-1 bombers. Last night we had 18 strikes by B-1 bombers," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said approvingly of air support his 3rd Infantry Division received in a recent offensive south of Baghdad.

Statistics tell the story: Air Force and Navy aircraft dropped 437 bombs and missiles in Iraq in the first six months of 2007, a fivefold increase over the 86 used in the first half of 2006, and three times more than in the second half of 2006, according to Air Force data. In June, bombs dropped at a rate of more than five a day.

Inside spacious, air-conditioned "Kingpin," a new air traffic control center at this huge Air Force hub 50 miles north of Baghdad, the expanded commitment can be seen on the central display screen: Small points of light represent more than 100 aircraft crisscrossing Iraqi air space at any one time.

snip

Early this year, with little fanfare, the Air Force sent a squadron of A-10 "Warthog" attack planes a dozen or more aircraft to be based at Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. At the same time it added a squadron of F-16C Fighting Falcons here at Balad. Although some had flown missions over Iraq from elsewhere in the region, the additions doubled to 50 or more the number of workhorse fighter-bomber jets available at bases inside the country, closer to the action.

The reinforcement involved more than numbers. The new F-16Cs were the first of the advanced "Block 50" version to fly in Iraq, an aircraft whose technology includes a cockpit helmet that enables the pilot to aim his weapons at a target simply by turning his head and looking at it.

The Navy has contributed by stationing a second aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, and the reintroduction of B1-Bs has added a close-at-hand "platform" capable of carrying 24 tons of bombs.

Those big bombers were moved last year from distant Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to an undisclosed base in the Persian Gulf. Since February, with the ground offensive, they have gone on Iraq bombing runs for the first time since the 2003 invasion.

As chronicled in the Air Force's daily summaries, more and more pilots are getting the "cleared hot" clearance for bombing runs, usually with 500-pound bombs. In recent Army operations north of Baghdad, for example, Air Force planes have struck "factories" for makeshift bombs, weapons caches uncovered by ground troops and, in one instance, "several houses insurgents were using as fire positions."

snip

In addition, the Air Force is performing more "ISR" work in Iraq intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. "We have probably come close to doubling our ISR platforms the past 12 months," said Col. Gary Crowder, a deputy air operations chief for the Central Command.

Those proliferating reconnaissance platforms include Predator drones, high-flying U2s and AWACS, the technology-packed airborne warning and control aircraft, three of which returned to the Persian Gulf in April after three years' absence.

The F-16Cs and other attack planes also do surveillance work with their targeting cameras, keeping watch on convoy routes, for example. By Oct. 1, Crowder said, all squadrons will have "ROVER" capability, able to download real-time aerial video to the laptop computers of troops on the ground showing them, in effect, what's around the next corner.

"They love it. It's like having a security camera wherever you want it," said Col. Joe Guastella, the Air Force's regional operations chief.

Air Force engineers, meanwhile, are improving this centrally located home base, which supports some 10,000 air operations per week.

snip

Many expect the Army to draw down its Iraq forces by 2009, but the Air Force is planning for a continued conflict in which it supports Iraqi troops.

"Until we can determine that the Iraqis have got their air force to sufficient capability, I think the coalition will be here to support that effort," Lt. Gen. Gary North, overall regional air commander, said in an interview. The new Iraqi air force thus far fields only a handful of transports and reconnaissance aircraft no attack planes.

North also echoed a common theme in today's Air Force: Some of the U.S. planes are too old. Some of his KC-135 air-refueling tankers date from 1956. Heavy use in Iraq and Afghanistan is cracking the wings of some A-10s, the Air Force says.

"We are burning these airplanes out," North said. "Our A-10s and our F-16s are rapidly becoming legacy systems."

If the equipment is under strain, it doesn't appear the personnel are.

The Air Force's four-month Iraq tours and extensive use of volunteer pilots from the Reserve and National Guard contrast sharply with an Army whose 15-month tours are sapping energy and morale.

In the Air Force, Iraq duty can even be cut to two months. Lt. Col. Bob Mortensen's 457th Fighter Squadron F-16Cs from Fort Worth, Texas managed it by working a deal with another Reserve unit to share one four-month rotation.

As you can see, I welcomed the opportunity to highlight the air war of which our Air Force is so proud. There are clearly some people in the U.S., including John McCain, who think that other people don't really care about how many of their own people are killed (their favorite example is Japan). When the killing stops, the U.S. will be welcome to stay as long as it wants because all the dead were just collateral damage, just incidental to regime change and not done on purpose, like the gassing of the Kurds.

And, believe it or not, this is an ethical matter. In this world view, it's the intent that counts; not the effects of an act. So, as long as the intent is good, it doesn't matter how many dead people there are. Indeed, it doesn't matter what nationality they are. Dead Americans are heroes and dead Iraqis don't count. That's why we don't count them.

That's how War Plays Out in Iraq from an Air Base in Southwest Asia.